EU GLAD TO SEE MORSI GONE-ADI MANSOUR SWORN IN

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

07/ 4/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Positive results for the Vatican, despite the crisis

Vatican City

Vatican finances presented to Economic Council of Cardinals

Vatican Insider Staff Vatican City On Tuesday Wednesday (July 2 and 3^rd), the meeting of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See took place in Vatican City, presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone . Particularly noteworthy was the visit on Wednesday 3 by Pope Francis, who addressed the speakers and engaged in a brief dialogue, reiterating the aims and purpose of the Council and inviting the continuation of periodical meetings.The following Cardinals participated in the meeting: Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Köln (Germany), Antonio María Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid (Spain), Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-el-Salaam (Tanzania), Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of México (México), Wilfrid Fox Napier, o.f.m., archbishop of Durban (South Africa), Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan (Italy), Telesphore Placidus Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi (India), George Pell, archbishop of Sydney (Australia), Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, John Tong Hon, bishop of Hong Kong (China), Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas (Venezuela), Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo (Brazil).The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See was represented by the president, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the secretary, Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, and the Accountant General, Stefano Fralleoni. Antonio Chiminello, director of the State Accounting Administration, spoke on behalf of the Governorate of Vatican City State.The Governorate of Vatican City State and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) were represented by: Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello and Msgr. Giuseppe Sciacca, president of the Commission of Cardinals for Vatican City State and the secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State respectively, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno and Msgr. Luigi Misto, president and secretary of APSA respectively.Upon invitation by the Cardinal Secretary of State, the following speakers intervened: Fr. Federico Lombardi s.j. and Alberto Gasbarri, director general and administrative director of Vatican Radio respectively; Marco Pacciarini, Lorenzo Suraci and Fernando Giménez Barriocanal, members of the Commission charged with formulating a technical appraisal of Vatican Radio; Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fidei), who gave a report on this latter Dicastery and on the Pontifical Missionary Works; Peter Sutherland, consultor for APSA, who explained the current macroeconomic situation and the investment policies of the aforementioned Administration; Ernst Von Freyborg, president of the IOR, who in conformity with article 25 § 2 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, gave a presentation to the Cardinal Fathers on the Institute’s current situation, followed by a broad discussion on suitable clarifications. In addition, Msgr. Luigi Mistò spoke about the problem of safeguarding and appraising the patrimony of ecclesiastical entities.Following an introduction by the Cardinal Secretary of State and Cardinal Versaldi, the accountant general first read the report on the consolidated financial statement of the Holy See for the year 2012 and subsequently that of the Governorate of Vatican City State. Msgr. Vallejo Balda instead focused on four areas – the Holy See-Roman Curia, the Holy See-Pastoral, the Holy See-Charity and Vatican City State – which together form the integrated financial statement of the two entities in question.The consolidated financial statement for the Holy See for the year 2012 closes with a profit of € 2,185,622, due mainly to good performance in financial management. The most significant categories of expenditure are those regarding the cost of personnel, numbering 2,823 units on 31 December 2012, means of social communication considered in their entirety, and the new property taxes (IMU) which resulted in an increase in expenditure of € 5,000,000 compared to previous figures.The Governorate has an autonomous Administration independent from contributions of the Holy See and, through its various Directions, provides for the needs relating to the management of the State. The 2012 financial statement, while affected by the global economic climate, closed with a profit of € 23,079,800, an increase of over a million euros compared to that of the previous year. A total of 1,936 were employed on 31 December 2012.Peter’s Pence, the contributions offered by the faithful in support of the Holy Father’s charity, passed from USD 69,711,722.76 in 2011, to USD 65,922,637.08, registering a reduction of 11.91%. Further contributions to the Holy See on the part of the Institutes of Consecrated Life, Societies of Apostolic Life and Foundations passed from USD 1,194,217.78, in 2011, to USD 1,133,466.91, with a reduction of 5.09%. In total, therefore, there has been a decrement of 7.45% compared to the total in US dollars recorded in 2011.The Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), as each year, offered the Holy Father a significant sum in support of his apostolic and charitable ministry. For 2012 this was a sum of € 50,000,000, to which € 1,000,000 is to be added for the Amazon Fund, € 1,500,000 for the Pro-orantibus Fund (support for cloistered monasteries), € 1,500,000 for the San Sergio Fund (support for the Church in the former Soviet Union), € 1,000,000 for the Commission for Latin America, and other minor donations.The Cardinal Fathers reflected on the data presented in the financial statements, verifying the positive results attained, and encouraged the reform necessary to reduce costs through the simplification and rationalisation of existent bodies, as well as more careful planning of the activities of all administrations. The Members of the Council expressed their deep gratitude for the support given, often anonymously, to the Holy Father’s universal ministry in spite of moments of economic crisis, and encouraged perseverance in this good work.

Palestinians say Kerry close to restarting talks

MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH 23 minutes ago PoliticsForeign Policy-JULY 4,13

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is closing in on an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch peace talks for a period of six to nine months, Palestinian officials said Thursday.While a deal is not yet in place, the Palestinians said their president, Mahmoud Abbas, is pleased with the progress and hopeful a formula can be reached to begin what would be the first substantive peace negotiations in nearly five years. Kerry announced this week that he had significantly narrowed the gaps between the sides and would soon return to the region to try to wrap up the deal.
Since taking office early this year, Kerry has been shuttling between the sides in search of a formula for resuming negotiations.The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. The last round of talks broke down in late 2008.The Palestinians have demanded that Israel stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem before negotiations begin. They see the continued construction of settlements, home to more than 500,000 Israelis, as a sign of bad faith that makes it increasingly impossible to partition the land. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.The Palestinians also want Israel to commit to base its final border with a future Palestinian on its 1967 frontiers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says negotiations should begin without any preconditions.Two Palestinian officials familiar with the negotiations said that Kerry has floated a compromise in which Israel would freeze settlement construction outside of major "blocs" that Israel expects to keep. These blocs are mostly located along Israel's pre-1967 border.
"Kerry is trying to pave the way for relaunching the peace process. He is serious and we encouraged him. He made progress and we hope he can conclude a deal in the coming week," said one official.While Israel would not explicitly commit to returning to its 1967 lines, negotiations would be based on a May 2011 policy speech by President Barack Obama. That speech called for a border based on the 1967 lines, with modifications based on mutually agreed "land swaps," while also urging the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Abbas has repeatedly rejected Israeli calls to recognize the country as the Jewish state, fearing it would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees displaced from properties inside Israel.Kerry's plan also calls on Israel to release about 100 of the longest-held Palestinian prisoners in its jails in several stages, and envisions a $4 billion international investment plan, conducted in various stages, to develop the struggling Palestinian economy.The idea would be that within six to nine months the sides could pursue an agreement on all outstanding matters, including final borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and resolving the competing claims to east Jerusalem.The Palestinian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. Kerry has ordered both sides to remain quiet in order not to disrupt the negotiating process.The officials said Abbas has not yet accepted Kerry's proposal, and is still pushing for a complete halt to settlement construction. But earlier this week, Abbas announced he was "optimistic" about Kerry's efforts.Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

EU sheds no tears over Morsi's departure

Today @ 09:37 JULY 4,13

By Andrew Rettman

The bloc's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, in a statement published shortly after soldiers placed Morsi and his top people under house arrest, said the Union "remains unequivocally committed to supporting the Egyptian people in their aspirations to democracy and inclusive governance."She urged the junta to "rapidly" organise new elections.She also said the future government must be "fully inclusive and ... ensur[e] full respect for fundamental rights, freedoms and the rule of law."Earlier the same evening, as the dramatic events in Egypt were still unfolding, the Lithuanian EU presidency, speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg on Ashton's behalf, listed Morsi's sins.Its EU affairs minister, Vytautas Leskevicius, said the Islamist leader was guilty of creating a "political stalemate" with secularist opponents, of arresting NGO activists, of restricting women's rights and of mismanaging day-to-day affairs, such as policing of petty crime and ensuring electricity and food supplies."Many people are feeling worse off than they were before 2011 [when Morsi came to power]," the Lithuanian minister said.MEPs from the left and right also voiced sympathy with the millions of Egyptians who went on the streets in recent days calling on Morsi to go.Spanish centre-right deputy Jose Ignacio Salafranca said "the voice of the people has to be listened to."Dutch Liberal Marietje Schaake said Morsi had "lost legitimacy" in a "power grab" which went beyond the abuses of his predecessor, pro-Western dictator Hosni Mubarak.Belgian Socialist Veronique de Keyser noted that while Morsi had been freely elected, his Muslim Brotherhood party ran the country's economy into the ground and installed an Islamist constitution which did not respect the rights of all Egyptian people.An EU diplomatic source told EUobserver: "It's one thing to be democratically elected, but it's another thing when you have several million people against you on the street."
The contact added that the Egyptian security forces, whose chiefs date from the Mubarak era, were acting for the sake of "the safety and security of the country, making sure it doesn't descend into civil war."EU institutions kept up to date with developments via the Cairo-based Arab League's Crisis Room.The crisis centre, created with EU support last year, monitors Arab media and physically overlooks Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital - the epicentre of the anti-Morsi rallies.EU institutions also have inside contacts with the Egyptian military and intelligence services.But the EU diplomatic source noted that Europe, at this stage in the new process, has little say on how things evolve."It's a very Egyptian thing," the contact said.With the Muslim Brotherhood, which originated in Egypt, but which has chapters in several Arab countries, denouncing the events as a "coup d'etat," Morsi's overthrow risks inflaming tensions between Islamists and secularists in the region.Ed Husein, a Middle East scholar in the Washington-based think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the New York Times on Wednesday that Sunni Muslims could be radicalised by the brotherhood's "humiliation."He noted: "The more extremist Islamists in the Arab world will say: 'We told you so. Democracy does not work. The only way to create an Islamist state is through armed struggle'."
Khalil al-Anani, a scholar at the UK's Durham University, who was in Cairo on Wednesday, told the Bloomberg news agency: "The collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood will lead to dangerous consequences … creating despair among young Islamists."But some Arab diplomats have other concerns."There is a risk that the Muslim Brotherhood will come out on the streets [in Egypt] … But I am equally worried that the military now has more power than it ever did," an Arab contact said."They have shown who is really in charge," the diplomatic source added.

Egypt: El Baradei Favored to Head Interim Government

Foreign Policy: ElBaradei had been approached by John Kerry to be prime minister under Morsi.

By Gil Ronen-First Publish: 7/4/2013, 5:25 PM-Israelnationalnews

Mohammed ElBaradei-Flash 90

Muhammad ElBaradei, the former head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, is the leading candidate for the position of prime minister of the interim government in Egypt, 24 hours after Mohammed Morsi was deposed by the military as the country's president.
The interim government is to rule Egypt until elections are held.Chief Justice Adly el-Mansour was officially sworn into office Thursday as the new transitional President of Egypt.First, however, he was sworn in as head of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court.ElBaradei played a key role in protests that removed Hosni Mubarak from power, and planned to run as a liberal, secular candidate in July’s presidential election. He cancelled his bid in January, citing undemocratic behavior by the military.David Kenner, Associate Editor of Foreign Policy magazine, wrote Wednesday that ElBaradei had confirmed to him that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken with him about the possibility of being appointed prime minister.“In a meeting earlier this year with a visiting scholar,” wrote Kenner, “[Muslim] Brotherhood deputy chairman Khairat al-Shater said that U.S. officials had called on Morsy to appoint ElBaradei as prime minister... [T]he thinking, according to Shater, was that ElBaradei's appointment could repair the rift between the government and opposition, stabilizing the country.Kenner and ElBaradei spoke about this as ElBaradei was preparing an article for the magazine's July/August edition.“In an interview to prepare the article,” Kenner wrote, “I asked ElBaradei about Shater's statement that the United States was pushing for his appointment as prime minister. He acknowledged that Secretary of State John Kerry had raised the possibility with him, but denied that he was interested in the position. "At this stage I think I would be more effective frankly being outside the system and try to focus on the bigger picture," he said.

Israel Closely, Quietly Monitoring Egyptian Developments

Israel is closely monitoring developments in Egypt and minding its diplomatic manners as a new regime begins to take form.First Publish: 7/4/2013, 3:06 PM-Israelnationalnews

IDF patrols near Sinai border-Flash 90

Israel is closely monitoring developments in Egypt as a new regime begins to take form following the military ouster of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohamed Morsi.There has been no comment from the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has asked all cabinet ministers, the Foreign Ministry and all official spokesperson not to comment on the events taking place across Israel’s southern border.
One official told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity the government is "closely monitoring the situation in Egypt but is not making any predictions because things are still developing."It is important that the Egyptian people can enjoy a new level of freedom and self-determination... but the current situation has sent shock waves throughout the Arab world and it is causing some concern in Israel," the source said."There is great uncertainty over Egypt’s future and it is very difficult for Egypt, which is caught up with internal issues, to deal with security problems, notably from terror groups in Sinai," another source told Army Radio – also speaking on condition of anonymity.Former public security minister Avi Dichter, however, was willing to speak on the record and grimly told Voice of Israel radio listeners in Hebrew on Thursday that he believes Israel will eventually be punished by the Muslim Brotherhood for its president's ouster.Tthe protests which swelled into a revolution of 22 million protesters seemed "clearly a planned military coup," he said. "The army started seeing that it was losing its power and financial interests, and when Morsi started going after the judiciary, the army understood the picture. This is what happened [also] in Algeria," he said."The army didn’t like the results of the elections and annulled it, which led to a bloodbath. I sincerely hope the same doesn’t happen in Egypt. We live in a neighborhood that when things happen they usually reach us too," warned the former head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)."I don’t see the Muslim Brotherhood taking the arrest of its leadership quietly for very long. They have a long history of producing terrorism to get their points across. Sinai always pays the price – we saw it after Mubarak’s ouster, and we’re likely to see it after Morsi’s ouster," he predicted. "Sinai is a no-man’s land, and Israel will pay the price for Sinai’s situation."
Nevertheless, much of Israel’s connection with Egypt is maintained at the military level, the Israel Hayom daily newspaper pointed out in an article published Thursday. "It is the military officials who value the relationship with Washington and cultivate the relationship with Israel," wrote Shlomo Cesana and the Israel Hayom staff. "Therefore, for Israel, a leadership made up of military generals is perhaps more approachable than a government led by a party with religious leanings."But the bottom line, agreed the newspaper, is Sinai, where the Muslim Brotherhood was blocked by the U.S. as well as Israel from destroying Egypt’s peace treaty with the Jewish State.It is also in Sinai where operatives from numerous terror organizations ranging from Al Qaeda to Hizbullah have busily built their bases of operations in the two years since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.The one target they all agree on is Israel.

Citing Egypt, Feiglin Calls Army Radio a 'Threat to Democracy'

If Egypt is any example, Israel must immediately remove Army Radio from control of the IDF said MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud)-By David Lev-First Publish: 7/4/2013, 3:42 PM-Israelnationalnews

Moshe Feiglin-Yoni Kempinski

If Egypt is any example, Israel must immediately remove Israel's Army Radio from the control of the IDF, said MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud). Feiglin made the comments after the Egyptian Army threatened to remove President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt at the beginning of the week, a threat they eventually made good on.
Regardless of one's opinion of Morsi, it was clear that in a democracy the army needed to have its powers limited, Feiglin said – and that included transferring communications to civilian control.“The existence of Army Radio is a major problem,” Feiglin said during a discussion of the Knesset Economics Committee at the beginning of the week on allowing Army Radio to broadcast advertisements.“The army has no business managing a private-sector information source, because such a situation can lead to a takeover of the civilian government by the army,” as happened in Egypt, Feiglin said. According to Feiglin, the first thing an army does is take over the means of communications – which also occurred in Egypt, when the army shut down radio and TV stations sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.“There is no room for this kind of situation in a democracy,” he added. If the IDF still wanted input into the station, he said, it could transfer ownership of Army Radio to a group of retired officers - who were now civilians.Israel's Army Radio, which began broadcasts in 1950 during the War of Independence,  has special programs geared to soldiers in addition to other broadcasts and may be listened to 24 hours a day reaching every part of Israel. It has been criticized heavily by the right for a leftist stance of a good number of its broadcasters.

Egypt orders Brotherhood arrests, interim leader sworn in

By Maggie Fick and Shadia Nasralla | Reuters – 1 hour 28 minutes ago JULY 4,13

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's prosecutor ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's leader on Thursday, widening a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president.The dramatic exit of President Mohamed Mursi was greeted with delight among millions of people on the streets of Cairo and other cities overnight, but there was simmering resentment among Egyptians who opposed military intervention.Perhaps aware of the risk of a polarized society, the new interim leader, Adli Mansour, used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood."The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed," he said.Mursi's removal after a year in office marked another twist in the turmoil that has gripped the Arab world's most populous country in the two years since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.The United Nations, the United States and some other world powers did not condemn Mursi's removal as a military coup. To do so might trigger sanctions.Army intervention was backed by millions of Egyptians, including liberal leaders and religious figures who expect new elections under a revised set of rules.The protest movement that sealed Mursi's fate was rooted in a liberal opposition that lost elections to Islamists, but its ranks were swelled by anger over broken promises on the economy, shrinking real incomes and lengthening lines for fuel.
POLITICAL ISLAM
The downfall of Egypt's first elected leader to emerge from the Arab Spring revolutions raised questions about the future of political Islam, which only lately seemed triumphant.Deeply divided, Egypt's 84 million people find themselves again a focus of concern in a region traumatized by the civil war in Syria.At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in street clashes across Egypt since Mursi's overthrow, and television stations sympathetic to Mursi were taken off air.Mursi himself was in military custody, army and Brotherhood sources said, and judicial authorities have opened an investigation into accusations that he and 15 other Islamists insulted the judiciary.The prosecutor's office also ordered the arrest of the Brotherhood's top leader, Mohamed Badie, and his deputy Khairat el-Shater, according to judicial and army sources.
The two men have been charged with inciting violence against protesters outside the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo that was attacked on Sunday night.A senior Brotherhood politician, Essam El-Erian, said the movement would take a long view of the political setback.Writing on Facebook, he said "waves of sympathy" for the Brotherhood would rise gradually over time and that the country's Islamist leaders were overthrown before they had a chance to succeed."The end of the coup will come faster than you imagine," he added.Mohamed El-Beltagy, a senior Brotherhood politician, said the movement was unlikely to take up arms over what he called a military coup, although he warned that other, unnamed, groups could be pushed to violent resistance by recent events.
"IT'S ABOUT EGYPT"
Outside the constitutional court where Mansour was sworn in, 25-year-old engineer Maysar El-Tawtansy summed up the mood among those who had voted for Mursi in the 2012 poll and opposed military intervention."We queued for hours at the election, and now our votes are void," he said. "It's not about the Brotherhood, it's about Egypt. We've gone back 30, 60 years. Now the military rules again. But freedom will prevail."For the defeated Islamists, the clampdown revived memories of their sufferings under the old, military-backed regime led by Hosni Mubarak, himself toppled by a popular uprising in 2011.There was a call from calm from the influential Dawa Salafiya movement of Egyptian Salafists, urging Islamists to "leave the squares to go to their mosques and homes."But a smaller Salafist group, the El-Asalah Party, posted on its website the locations in Cairo and other cities where its followers should gather in the afternoon in support of Mursi.The clock started ticking for Mursi when millions took to the streets on Sunday to demand he resign. They accused his Brotherhood of hijacking the revolution, entrenching its power and failing to revive the economy.That gave armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who already had his own reservations about the state of the nation under Mursi, a justification to invoke the "will of the people" and demand the president share power or step aside.The United States and other Western allies had also pressed Mursi hard to open his administration to a broader mix of ideas.Sisi, in uniform and flanked by politicians, officers and clergy, called on Wednesday for measures to wipe clear a slate of messy democratic reforms enacted since Mubarak fell. The constitution was suspended.
INTERIM GOVERNMENT
A technocratic interim government will be formed, along with a panel for national reconciliation, and the constitution will be reviewed. Mansour said fresh parliamentary and presidential elections would be held, but he did not specify when.Liberal chief negotiator Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. nuclear agency chief, said the plan would "continue the revolution" of 2011.Many liberals hope they can have more electoral success than last year, when the Brotherhood's organization dominated the vote. But its own ability to fight back democratically may be limited by the arrests of its leaders.Straddling the Suez Canal and Israel's biggest neighbor, Egypt's stability is important for many powers.U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration provides $1.3 billion a year to the Egyptian military, expressed concern about Mursi's removal and called for a swift return to a democratically elected civilian government.But he stopped short of condemning a military move that could block U.S. aid.A senator involved in aid decisions said the United States would cut off its financial support if the intervention was deemed a military coup.Israel avoided any show of satisfaction over the fall of an Islamist president who alarmed many in the Jewish state but who quickly made clear he would not renege on a peace treaty.German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the latest events in Egypt "a serious setback for democracy" while NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "gravely concerned" about the situation.The African Union said it was likely to suspend Egypt from all its activities and Turkey said the army's overthrow of Mursi constituted an "unacceptable" military coup.But the new emir in Qatar, which has provided billions of dollars in aid to Egypt following the ousting of Mubarak, congratulated Mansour on his appointment.The markets reacted positively to Mursi's exit. Egypt's main stock index surged to a one-month high at the opening on Thursday, gaining 6.4 percent.(Reporting by Asma Alsharif, Mike Collett-White, Alexander Dziadosz, Shaimaa Fayed, Maggie Fick, Alastair Macdonald, Shadia Nasralla, Tom Perry, Yasmine Saleh, Paul Taylor, and Patrick Werr in Cairo, Abdelrahman Youssef in Alexandria and Yursi Mohamed in Ismailia, Michelle Martin in Berlin, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Amena Bakr in Dubai; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Gulf Arabs greet Egypt's new leader, Turkey slams 'coup'

By Sami Aboudi-JULY 4,13
DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab states welcomed Egypt's interim leader on Thursday, hopeful his appointment would stem the rise of Islamists in the Middle East, but the military overthrow of an elected president drew a guarded response from Iran and condemnation from Turkey.The United States expressed concern at the ouster of Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday and called for a swift return to democracy, as did the European Union. But they stopped short of calling it a coup, which might have led to sanctions.The 54-nation African Union was likely to suspend Egypt for allowing "unconstitutional change", a senior AU source told Reuters.
For Gulf Arab states, which see Egypt as a strategic ally against any threat from non-Arab Iran across the Gulf, the appointment of constitutional court chief Adli Mansour as interim leader was met with congratulations and evident relief."We followed with all consideration and satisfaction the national consensus that your brotherly country is witnessing, and which had played a prominent role in leading Egypt peacefully out of the crisis it had faced," said the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, was quoted as praising Egypt's armed forces for the "positive and historic role" they played in preserving stability.
"CRITICAL PERIOD"
Saudi King Abdullah sent a message of congratulations on Wednesday "in this critical period of ... history", and Qatar, the only Gulf Arab state that backed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, welcomed the new leader on Thursday.The official Qatar news agency reported that cables of congratulation had been sent to Mansour by Qatar's new emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.Qatar has been a major financier of Islamist groups around the Arab World and had provided billions of dollars in aid to Egypt since the 2011 revolution that ended the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak.Iran, which sought to repair its strained ties with Egypt after Mursi's election a year ago, gave a guarded response, calling for the people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism".Mursi visited Tehran on one of his first official trips abroad, but the two countries have found themselves supporting opposite sides of a civil war in Syria that has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones."Certainly the resistant nation of Egypt will protect its independence and greatness from foreign and enemy opportunism during the difficult conditions that follow," Fars news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi as saying.Syria, fighting to crush a two-year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, urged Mursi to step down on Wednesday and realize "that the overwhelming majority of the Egyptian people reject him", Information Minister Omran Zoabi was quoted as saying by state news agency SANA.Neighboring Israel avoided any show of satisfaction over Mursi's ouster, although a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed hope Mansour's appointment would lead to the restoration of largely frozen contacts with Cairo."Yesterday's events strengthen the feeling that perhaps we have passed the bad period and perhaps now there will be a chance to have diplomatic ties with whomever will govern Egypt in the near future," Tzachi Hanegbi told Army Radio.
"ILLICIT MEANS"
Straddling the Middle East and Europe, Turkey was harshly critical of Egypt's army, saying its overthrow of Mursi was "unacceptable" - a marked difference from its would-be partners in the European Union, which avoided repeated questions on whether it was a military coup."It is unacceptable for a government that has come to power through democratic elections to be toppled through illicit means and, even more, a military coup," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul.Turkey has a history of military coups and is run by a government with Islamist roots which has faced weeks of often violent protests.Some Western countries were concerned about the overthrow. "The dismissal of the democratically elected President Mursi by the military is very questionable. Military intervention as a way to resolve conflicts in a democratic system is not acceptable," Austrian Deputy Chancellor and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said in a statement.NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was gravely concerned.
U.S. President Barack Obama stopped short of condemning the move. "I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process," he said in a statement.(Additional reporting by Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa, Adrian Croft in Brussels, Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul, Silvia Westall in Kuwait, Sami Aboudi and Marcus George in Dubai, writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Portugal and Greece highlight eurozone fragility

Today @ 09:18 JULY 4,13

By Honor Mahony

BRUSSELS - Political turmoil in Portugal and concerns about the pace of reform in Greece have raised fears that the eurozone crisis may be about to reignite.Nervous markets pushed up borrowing costs in Portugal to a painful 8 percent Wednesday (3 July) after the governing coalition of Pedro Passos Coelho saw the resignation of its finance and foreign ministers over the social and economic costs of austerity measures.
The prime minister on Tuesday evening vowed not to resign amid calls from the European Commission on Portuguese politicians to act with "responsibility" as its "financial credibility" risks being jeopardized.
But Coelho's weakened position raises doubts about whether Lisbon - until recently routinely praised for putting into place a series of harsh budget-cutting measures - will be able to meet the terms of the its €78 billion bailout, agreed in 2011.An economic report on Portugal published last month by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- one of the country's creditors along with the European Central Bank and the European Commission - painted a gloomy outlook."Improvements in external competitiveness indicators remain limited," it said noting that "economic recovery is proving elusive." The country's debt is predicted to reach 130 percent of national output by 2015.Meanwhile, fellow bailout country Greece is faring little better. It is having problems pushing through the reforms in return for its bailout money. The task of cutting thousands of public sector jobs is particularly difficult. Recently the government almost collapsed over the closure of the public broadcaster, ERT.Representatives from the lender institutions are currently in Athens to check on reform progress amid rumours of the next tranche of money being delayed. Eurozone finance ministers are due to decide on the issue next Monday (8 July).There are simmering issues elsewhere too. Spanish banks - which received a bailout in 2012 - face many problems before they are in the clear, Italy is mired in low growth, while Cyprus - the latest recipient of a bailout - has to undertake a swathe of tough reforms.The increased uncertainty and market nervousness comes after a prolonged period of relative quiet, prompted by the ECB's promise a year ago to do whatever it takes to save the euro.The calm saw several politicians, including the EU's top duo commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy, EU council president, say the worst of the eurozone's crisis was in the past.The intervening months, though markets have been quieter, have seen continued debate on the merits of prolonged budget slashing, with the IMF recently suggesting Greece's bailout programme ought to have been handled differently.
The European Commission - long a fierce promoter of austerity measures - recently gave a series of countries more time to reach the 3 percent deficit required under EU rules.On Wednesday (3 July), Barroso told MEPs in Strasbourg he was prepared to ease deficit constraints further still, saying that some infrastructure spending, such as transport and energy, will not be counted as deficit spending in 2014.
The aim is to “non-recurrent public investment programmes with a proven impact on the sustainability of public finances," said the commission.The move would apply to countries that have deficits below 3 percent of GDP - benefitting Italy in particular which has a low budget deficit but large public debt.

MUSLIM NATIONS (SLAUGHTERED BY NUKES FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL)

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:TOBOLSK)
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages;(ISRAEL) I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil,(OIL IS IN SPOIL) and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

EZEKIEL 39:1-8,11-18
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye (MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL) shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.(RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS)
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I (GOD-JESUS) will set my glory among the heathen,(WORLD NATIONS) and all the heathen (WORLD NATIONS) shall see my judgment that I have executed,(AGAINST ISRAELS ENEMIES) and my (GODS) hand that I have laid upon them.(ISRAELS HATER ENEMIES)

JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37  For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)

EZEKIEL 35:3-6,11-15
3  And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir,(ARABS) I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4  I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5  Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,(AGAINST ISRAEL) and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
11  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12  And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13  Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14  Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.(ARAB,MUSLIMS)
15  As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir,(ARABS) and all Idumea,(ARAB,MUSLIMS) even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

EGYPT

ISAIAH 19:1-5
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Syria's Assad brags opponents failed to oust him

BARBARA SURK 2 hours ago PoliticsSyria-JULY 4,13

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's President Bashar Assad claimed in an interview published Thursday that countries conspiring against Syria have "used up all their tools" in their campaign to overthrow his regime. The remarks came as Western-backed Syrian opposition figures gathered in Turkey for talks on electing a new leadership.
In comments to the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad rejected the idea that what has been happening in Syria since more than two years is a revolution. Instead, he insisted it is a conspiracy by Western and some Arab states to destabilize his country.In the same interview, Assad praised this week's massive protests by Egyptians against their Islamist leader and said the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi meant the end of "political Islam."In Syria, more than 93,000 people have been killed since the crisis erupted in March 2011. The conflict began as peaceful protests against Assad's rule, then turned into civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.Throughout the crisis, Assad has insisted that his government is not faced with a popular rebellion, but a Western-backed conspiracy against Syria, accusing the rebels fighting to topple his regime of being terrorists, Islamic extremists and mercenaries of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states that are allies of the United States."The countries that conspire against Syria have used up all their tools ... and they have nothing left except direct (military) intervention," Assad said in the interview, adding that such an intervention would not happen.The Syrian regime says Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, in addition to the U.S. and its European allies, are on the list of countries conspiring against Syria. These states have been chief supporters of the opposition fighting to overthrow Assad.Assad's comments coincided with a meeting of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul in the second attempt in as many months by his opponents to unify their ranks.The opposition bloc is mostly made up of exiled politicians with little support from Syrians trying to survive the third summer of conflict in the country that has been devastated by the fighting.Sarah Karkour, a spokeswoman for the SNC, said that acting leader George Sabra and senior opposition figures Louay Safi and Mustafa Sabbagh are topping the list of candidates for the new leadership, including an interim government.In late May, the opposition leaders met for more than a week in Istanbul, but failed to elected new leaders or devise a strategy for possible peace talks that the U.S. and Russia have been trying to convene in Geneva.Khaled Saleh, a SNC spokesman, said the coalition "welcomes any international effort to bring about a political solution to the crisis," but insisted that "any talks with Damascus on transition must start with the departure of Assad from power."Assad has repeatedly dismissed his political opponents as foreign-directed exiles who don't represent the people of Syria. He has also shrugged off calls to step down, saying he will serve the rest of his term and could consider running for another one in next year's presidential elections.The newspaper, Al-Thawra, also quoted Assad saying his opponents failed because they tried to bring religion onto the battlefield. Assad insisted he still enjoys the support of the majority of Syrians, who have stood against Islamic radicals who have emerged as the most effective force on the opposition's side.Members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority have dominated the rebel ranks, while Assad's regime is mostly made up of Alawaites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam."Whoever brings religion to use for political or factional interests will fall anywhere in the world," Assad said in the interview, again citing Morsi's overthrow by the military in Egypt.In the past weeks, Assad's army has been waging an offensive to regain control of territory it lost to the opposition. The fighting has been particularly fierce in the central city of Homs, parts of which have been an opposition stronghold since the beginning of the revolt more than two years ago.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported heavy clashes between government troops and rebels on Thursday in the Khaldiyeh and Bab Houd districts of Homs, and said regime warplanes hit targets there early in the morning. Rebels have held those districts for the past year."Homs, Homs, the besieged city," a man is heard saying in footage showing destruction from the fighting there. The man is heard saying how Assad's forces have used heavy weapons, including rocket launchers, and have damaged the city's old market. The video, which was posted on the Internet on Thursday, appears genuine and corresponds with AP reporting from the area.The Observatory said fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant movement, which has sided with Assad's forces, have been battling rebels in Homs. Hezbollah fighters helped the Syrian army capture a key town near Lebanon's border last month, dealing a blow to opposition fighters who have been ferrying supplies and fighters over the border.Also Wednesday, a government official told The Associated Press that deputy Labor Minister, Rakan Ibrahimn, was seriously wounded in a bombing in Damascus. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said a bomb was attached to Ibrahim's car, parked in the Barameka neighborhood of Damascus. It went off when he started the car, the official said, adding that the deputy minister was taken to a hospital.
Rebels groups, particularly those affiliated with al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups have frequently targeted Syrian government officials, regime loyalists and military installations with car bombs and suicide attacks.___Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Beirut contributed to this report.

Iran says Egypt must guard against 'enemy opportunism'

3 hours ago PoliticsMohamed MorsiIranEgyptHosni Mubarak-JULY 4,13

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Thursday gave a guarded response to the army's removal of Egypt's Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, calling for the people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism".Iran welcomed the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 as part of an "Islamic awakening" and has sought to repair its strained ties with Egypt since Mursi's election victory last year.Mursi visited Tehran on one of his first official trips abroad, but the two countries have found themselves supporting opposite sides of a civil war in Syria that has taken on increasingly sectarian overtones.Largely Sunni Muslim Egypt under Mursi voiced its support for mostly Sunni rebel groups seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, Shi'ite Iran's closest Arab ally."Certainly the resistant nation of Egypt will protect its independence and greatness from foreign and enemy opportunism during the difficult conditions that follow," Fars new agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi as saying.
"With respect for the political origins of its (Egypt's) discerning, civilized and historic people, the Islamic Republic emphasizes the need to fulfill their legitimate demands and is hopeful that ... developments will provide an atmosphere to meet their needs," Araqchi said.The statement was a good deal more equivocal than before Mursi was deposed. On Tuesday, an Iranian official said the Egyptian president had been elected by the will of the nation and called on the armed forces to "take heed of the vote of the people".(Reporting by Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming and Kevin Liffey)