Disregard the consequences of Covid-19 on tourism in Egypt; just allow tourists to go through Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel to cross back into Mainland Egypt, and you will have accomplished what no Covid pandemic could accomplish: a no-return exit. The current situation at Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel is liable to cause colossal damage not only to tourism but also to Sinai’s productivity and commerce. Then there is people’s dignity, which is totally overlooked, all this despite the efforts that our leaders are exerting to improve accessibility across Egypt.
This is a plea to officials in the tourism, transportation, and industry sectors in the Sinai Peninsula. Various tunnels have been built to connect Sinai to Mainland Egypt, and yet Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel remains the most functional crossing of all. Movement of people and goods from Southern Sinai depends mainly if not solely on this particular entry and exit spot.
In a return trip from the coastal town of Neweiba along the Gulf of Aqaba, and after a time well spent, we hit the ongoing and everlasting chaos at Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel. We had thought that, since several other tunnels had been constructed, the situation at Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel will have improved. It hadn’t.
We, like other travellers in 100s of buses and private cars and in 100s of huge trucks loaded with products and pulling trailers loaded with more products, waited for those mishandling the crossing to allow us in. Vehicles idled spewing hazardous exhaust in the air as they consumed many gallons of gasoline. Thousands of workmanship hours were lost as drivers loitered around aware that they will remain at a meaningless standstill for hours. After five hours of waiting, we were allowed to cross.
We, as passengers in a private vehicle, were fortunate; we were let through after only a few terribly agonizing hours, but we left behind the drivers and passengers of commercial vehicles to their destiny and in queue for several more hours if not until the next morning, their loadings of Sinai products—thousands of cement papers packs, mammoth blocks of stones or minerals, and citrus fruits—heaped to the brim. These commercial vehicles remained at a grinding halt.
I talked to some of the drivers and their responses exhibited the disgruntlement let alone the dismay in how they are treated. “We are at the mercy of a few soldiers who don’t care about us, who think citizens are unimportant, and who don’t consider us humans. We go through this chaos on every trip.”
So in addition to the loss of time and productivity, these drivers consider themselves of no value, and this is a very dangerous sign. It creates animosity and destroys the efforts made elsewhere and across all Egypt.
Then where is the civil aspect in all this? Where is the dignity and rights of passengers and drivers alike who were unable to use a washroom for the duration of the wait? These travellers had already been on the road for many hours only to be expected to wait for yet another six or seven extra hours without an accessible washroom. This in itself is demeaning and humiliating.
We have yet to consider what tourists might think of the chaos. Anyone returning from Sinai and to name just a few touristic areas: Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab, Ras Sidr, Neweiba, St. Catherine, and Taba will think twice before they head to these resort areas again. Thousands of other spots around the world exist where they would be treated far better. If Egyptians have no choice but to bear the brunt of this treatment, tourists won’t.
Besides, there is no logic behind the haphazard mishandling of the whole ordeal. Defiant drivers exited the lineup, hit the ditches on both sides of the road, sped precariously for a good distance, then pushed their way in. Their reckless but daring action saved them at least a few hours of stationary delay. Nonetheless, this was followed by flare ups amongst travellers as those who waited dutifully had to wait even longer. All this was mismanaged and ignored by tunnel officials.
But the most disturbing part of all this was the moment every passenger and driver looked forward to: reaching the tunnel. They realized then that security does not play a part in the kerfuffle, that no meticulous inspection is to take place, that only a signal car lane is open, and that the tunnel itself remains weirdly empty of cars. The reasons then behind the chaos is beyond me. It is almost as though those in charge are intentionally making it difficult for travellers.
Regardless of the agony, the time, and the effort wasted, this image is disastrous for Egypt. It lacks dignity and it exhibits how many shortcomings still need development and change.
As far as I am concerned, Sinai and its beautiful touristy spots are out of bounds until some real change occurs at Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel.
Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that the Pharaohs’ Golden parade, where 22 mummies will be transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, is set to take place on April 3.
The mummies that will be transferred include Pharaoh Ramses II; Pharaoh Ramses IX; Pharaoh Ramses VI; Pharaoh Ramses V; Pharaoh Seti I; Pharaoh Seqenenre; and Pharaoh Thutmose III, as well as Queen Hatshepsut; QueenMeritamun, the wife of King Amenhotep I; and Queen Ahmose Nefertari, the wife of King Ahmose.
The event will also feature various artistic performances by Egyptian artists, musicians as well as renowned film stars, such as Mona Zaki, Hussein Fahmy and Sawsan Badr.
Ahmed Ghoneim, head of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, told Daily News Egypt that the museum will be open to the public on April 4, two weeks before the mummies will be officially displayed.
As one of the main projects sponsored by UNESCO, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization presents Egypt’s heritage across a long historical period of time, from past to present. It will also act as a cultural centre that shall host concerts, live performances, as well as various leisure activities.
The museum also includes an education centre, a conference Room, and a library. It is located in Ain Elsira, Al Fustat, Cairo.
Egypt is facing many water challenges besides the GERD, including the increasing demand on water and climate change, Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati told Al-Ahram
Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati.
Egypt’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Ati urged the public to ration their water consumption to alleviate the challenges the country is facing, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
Ethiopia reiterated its intention to start the second phase of filling the massive dam's reservoir this July despite the lack of a legally binding agreement with downstream countries Egypt and Sudan.
Abdel-Ati, in remarks to Al-Ahram published on Sunday, slammed Ethiopia's unilateral actions regarding the filling and operation of the GERD, saying Egypt will not accept their grave implications which should be referred to the UN Water Day held annually on 22 March.
Egypt has recently welcomed a Sudanese proposal to form a quartet comprising the UN, the European Union, the US, and the African Union to mediate stalled talks on the GERD.
Egypt and Sudan demand that a legally binding agreement is reached before the second filling to secure their water interests and protect their peoples from the implications of filling the mega dam.
Abdel-Ati told Al-Ahram Egypt is facing many water challengesbesides the GERD, including the increasing demand on water and climate change.
He noted that these challenges require Egyptians to rationalise their water consumption. Parliament, he added, is set to pass a host of legislation and the state is implementing several projects to preserve water.
The minister said parliament is scheduled to pass a new irrigation bill that bans all activities wasting water resources. These activities include throwing dust or clay in public waterways, storm drains and water networks, which may block them.
The new 131-article bill aims to improve the development and management of water resources and ensure the fair distribution of water, Abdel-Ati said.
The new bill also seeks to determine the areas allocated for agriculture and regulate irrigation and drainage works in new plots, the minister said. It also ensures that no lands are allocated for horizontal agricultural expansion unless approved by the irrigation ministry.
Abdel-Ati spoke about the state project to line water canals. The first phase of the project aims to rehabilitate 7,000 kilometres of water canals and is set for completion in 2022 at the cost of EGP 18 billion.
He added that the ministry has rehabilitated 1,248 kilometres of canals and is working on 4,417 more kilometres. The project is meant to improve the management and distribution of water.
Abdel-Ati also called on the public to protect the project's waterways from pollution.
The ministry, in parallel with the project of rehabilitating and lining water canals, encourages farmers to adopt modern irrigation techniques instead of surface irrigation to reduce water consumption, Abdel-Ati said.
Some 237,000 feddans are irrigated with modern techniques, the minister added.
Egypt suffers from a water deficit of 30 billion cubic metres; it annually needs at least 110 billion cubic metres of water. However, it currently has only 80 billion cubic metres, 55.5 billion cubic metres of which come from the Nile.
للتغلب على جائحة الكورونا يجب أن يصبح الجزء الأكبر من مواطني العالم محصنين ضد الوباء. التحدي إذن هو توفير اللقاح للمواطنين جميعا، الفقراء منهم مثل الاغنياء. المُسلم به أن تضع الدول الغنية مواطنيها الأصليين في المقام الأول وتفضّلهم على فقراء وضعفاء البلدان الأخرى، ولكن تداعيات هذا النهج ستكون ضاره بالجميع، وستزداد بموجبه الفرص لمتغيرات الجائحة الوبائية التي تقاوم اللقاحات في الظهور متسببة في تفشيها مرة أخرى لتمتد في وجودها بيننا
لقد تخلفت البلدان الفقيرة عن ركب الحصول على اللقاحات، ففي يناير ٢٠٢١ وصفت المجموعة البحثية والتحليلية "وحدة المعلومات الاقتصادية" عدم التوازن الحالي، معطية صورة قاتمة عن متى ستصل بلدان العالم إلى تغطية تطعيم واسعة النطاق. بحلول أواخر عام ٢٠٢١ ستكون الولايات المتحدة ومعظم الدول الأوروبية قد وصلت إلى هذه المرحلة، وبحلول منتصف عام ٢٠٢٢ ستتمتع روسيا والصين وكندا والمملكة العربية السعودية وبعض دول أمريكا الجنوبية بتغطية مماثلة، لكن الاقتصادات الأكثر فقراً ومعظمها في إفريقيا لن تحقق التغطية قبل عام ٢٠٢٣، إن أمكن لهم ذلك على الإطلاق
كإجراء وقائي كانت قد أوصت الدول الغنية مسبقًا على كم من اللقاحات يتعدى احتياجاتهم. حقيقةً أن مجموع إمدادات اللقاح هذه لم تصل بعد إلى الدول، لكن التخصيص تم بالفعل وسيصلهم ما يكفي من اللقاحات لتطعيم سكانهم بالكامل أربع أو خمس مرات
كندا على سبيل المثال تعاقدت على لقاحات لتطعيم كل كندي خمس مرات. الولايات المتحدة اشترت مسبقًا لقاحات بإمكانها تغطية احتياج سكانها أربع مرات، ومع ذلك يوم ١٠ مارس أعلنت إدارة بايدن عزمها على شراء ١٠٠ مليون جرعة إضافية من لقاح شركة جونسون وجونسون. ومثلها مثل الاتحاد الأوروبي الذي طلب مليارا وستمائة جرعة للبالغين البالغ عددهم ٣٧٥ مليونًا. كما اشترت بريطانيا أيضًا أكثر من ٢٠٠ مليون لقاح لـ ٥٤ مليون بالغ، وهو فائض يبلغ ١٦٥ مليونًا. وفقًا لهيئة الإذاعة البريطانية على الرغم من أن الدول الغنية لا تمثل سوى ١٤ في المائة من سكان العالم إلا أنها اشترت ما يصل إلى ٥٣ في المائة من اللقاحات حتى الآن
إن اتفاقيات الشراء المسبقة كانت منطقية في حينها، لأنه لم يكن أحد يعلم أي اللقاحات سوف ينجح. لكن النتيجة أنه بحلول نهاية ٢٠٢٠ كانت البلدان ذات الدخل المرتفع قد اشترت مسبقًا حقوق أكثر من ٣,٨ مليار جرعة لقاح مع احتمال شراء لـ ٥ مليارات أخرى جاعلا أسعار اللقاحات باهظة الثمن بالنسبة للبلدان الفقيرة
هناك عدة مبادرات استثنائية للتغلب على هذه المعضلة قد تعمل على استقرار تواجد اللقاح وتوازنه بين الدول جمعاء. جاءت إحدى آليات دعم هذا التوازن من شركة الأدوية "استرازينيكا" التي تعهدت بتقديم أكثر من نصف جرعاتها إلى البلدان النامية. كما وعدت ببيع لقاحاتها بسعر التكلفة إلى الأبد
وبينما يبدو أن بعض الدول تخزِّن اللقاحات فإن الصين عازمة على تحسين صورتها أمام العالم وتعهدت بتوزيع ما يقرب من ١٠ أضعاف اللقاحات خارج الصين عما توزعه بداخلها. على الرغم من أن عدد سكانها البالغ ١,٤ مليار نسمة سيحتاجون في المتوسط إلى ملياري جرعة، فقد شحنت الصين ملايين الجرعات إلى الدول النامية. قد يكون الخيار الآخر هو تعاون الشركات المنتجة للقاحات مع شركات مصنعة أخرى في أنحاء العالم، وهذا من شأنه أن يخلق منافذ في مواقع حول العالم لإنتاج المزيد من اللقاحات. بالفعل شركة "استرازينيكا" تعمل مع مؤسسة فى الهند لتطبيق هذا النمط، وجارٍ إنتاج آلاف اللقاحات هناك
إذا تم استيفاء طلبات الدول الغنية يمكن إعادة تخصيص اللقاحات الإضافية مجانًا أو بأقل تكلفه للبلاد المحتاجة، وبالطبع ستتدخل السياسة وستعتمد على علاقات البلدان بعضها ببعض. ومع ذلك قد تنتهي صلاحية اللقاحات وسيكون هدرا فاحشا إذا تُركت دون استخدام، لذلك سيكون من المنطقي إعادة توزيعها على من ليس لديهم إمكانية الوصول إلى جرعات كافية أو أي جرعات. النرويج أول دولة تعلن إعادة تخصيص الفائض من اللقاحات نظرًا لأنها قد حصلت على ثلاثة أضعاف عدد اللقاحات التي تحتاجها. قال وزير التنمية الدولية النرويجي إن التوزيع سيتم تدريجيا وبالتوازي مع تطعيم السكان النرويجيين. حان الوقت لكي تحذو البلدان الأخرى حذو النرويج
لكن المنقذ الحقيقي للدول الفقيرة سيكون عن طريق مبادرة أطلقتها منظمة الصحة العالمية أسمتها "كوفاكس"، تضمن وصول ٢ مليار لقاح إلى أكثر من مائتي دوله بحلول نهاية عام ٢٠٢١، وهي فرصة للبلدان ذات الدخل المحدود التي لا تستطيع دفع تكاليف اللقاحات بنفسها لتحصل على فرصة متساوية مع البلدان ذات الدخل المرتفع. وقد بدأت اللقاحات في الوصول إلى البلدان الإفريقية بالفعل. وفقًا لمنظمة الصحة العالمية تم تسليم غانا ستمائة ألف جرعة وتم تسليم ساحل العاج أكثر من نصف مليون جرعة لقاح
The royal process will take spectators back to the ancient Egyptia period, when kings and queens were transported to their tombs towards eternity
Twenty-two royal Egyptian mummies are set to be transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in a much-awaited parade in the streets of Cairo on 3 April, the tourism and antiquities ministry announced on Wednesday.
In a video teaser on Facebook, the ministry said that the 22 mummies will be transferred in a parade from Downtown Cairo’s Egyptian Museum to NMEC in Fustat.
"Don’t miss this unrivalled, once in a lifetime event. Stay tuned for The Pharoahs’ Golden Parade on the 3 April 2021,” it said.
The royal mummies, along with 17 royal sarcophagi from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties, will be transported to the museum, including 18 mummies of kings and four of queens.
The mummies include those of kings Ramses II, Seti I, Seqnenre, and Tuthmoses III, as well as queens Hatshepsut, Meritamun, the wife of King Amenhotep I, and Ahmose Nefertari, the wife of King Ahmose.
While no details have been revealed by the ministry, it is expected that the royal procession that will take place in the first week of April will take spectators back to the ancient Egyptian period, when kings and queens were transported to their tombs towards eternity.
The new procession will see the royal mummies transported on the Nile and then accompanied by chariots and horses.
Work has been underway in the past few years in NMEC to ensure the halls of the museum are equipped to receive the mummies and sarcophagi.
The NMEC covers some 135,000 square metres and overlooks the Ain Al-Sira Lake, close to the religious compound where Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque is located, near the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt is racing to prepare a grandiose new capital city in the desert east of Cairo before the first civil servants move in this summer and ahead of the delayed official opening of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s flagship project.
There will be a monorail passing through a business district where a 385-metre central tower is close to completion. Beyond, the contours of a 10km park stretching to a giant mosque are taking shape.
The city, known simply as the New Administrative Capital, is designed to operate with smart technology on virgin land away from the clutter and chaos of Cairo. It will boast universities, leisure facilities and a diplomatic quarter.
But it has made halting progress, and after Emirati funding fell through shortly after it was announced in 2015, the military and government took on the estimated $25 billion cost of the first
The coronavirus pandemic also slowed progress, and the first of three planned phases, covering 168 square kilometres, will not be completed when the government begins to move in.
“The rate of completion of the first phase has passed 60% across all projects,” said Khaled el-Husseiny, spokesman for the new capital.
He added that the delayed transfer of civil servants would begin in July, ahead of an official opening planned for the end of 2021.
HI-TECH
The city is being designed as a high-tech model for Egypt’s future.
Control centres will monitor infrastructure and security electronically, roofs will be covered in solar panels, payments will be cashless and 15 square metres of green space are allocated per inhabitant, officials said.
“We are trying to solve all the problems we had in the past in the new capital,” said Husseiny.
The finished city is expected to house at least 6 million residents, its second and third phases largely residential.
That will take decades to complete, although the government will be able to function normally while construction goes on, said Amr Khattab, spokesman for the Housing Ministry which is responsible for executing parts of the city.
How far and how fast Egypt’s centre of gravity shifts away from Cairo to the new capital 45 km from the Nile is unclear. For now, thousands of residential blocks stand empty either side of a highway leading into the new city.
The completion of the business district, yet to be marketed, is set for 2023.
Electric train and monorail links are under construction. The first 50,000 civil servants expected to relocate to the new capital from this summer will be offered shuttle buses to get there.
Around 5,000 out of 20,000 housing units have been sold in the first residential district expected to open in May, said Khattab.
On Monday, Sisi’s office announced 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($96 million) in incentives for civil servants selected to move to the city.
LAND SALES
Officials say the city will eventually include social housing and is meant to finance itself through land sales, though it is unclear how much revenue these have generated.
Of the $25 billion cost for the first phase, about $3 billion is being spent on the government district, said Husseiny.
Some international financing has been secured for rail links, and a $3 billion Chinese loan has helped fund the business district, built by China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC).
Sisi, who has embarked on multiple infrastructure mega-projects and national development schemes, says other regions will not be neglected.
“We are not leaving Cairo, or Alexandria or Port Said or other provinces. We are moving forward with the old and the new together,” the president said last week. The capital’s opening would mark the “birth of a new state”, he added.
Though there is support for the government’s argument that the new capital can reduce congestion in Cairo, there is also concern that it will be unaffordable and inaccessible to many.
“Some classes will be able to live there, others won’t,” said Alaa Ibrahim, a 39-year-old electrician in Cairo’s impoverished Imbaba district.
The EU announced it was ending sanctions imposed in 2011 against nine Egyptians, including the family of Hosni Mubarak. (File/AFP)
The EU slapped asset freezes on senior figures, including Mubarak, his wife, two sons and their wives, after he was toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings
Mubarak and his family had challenged the punitive measures in court
BRUSSELS: The European Union announced Friday it was ending sanctions imposed in 2011 against nine Egyptians, including the family of former leader Hosni Mubarak, over the alleged stealing of state funds.
“Restrictive measures were initially adopted in 2011 and aimed notably at assisting the Egyptian authorities with the recovery of misappropriated state assets,” the member states said in a statement.
“Following the most recent review of the nine listings still in force, the Council concluded that the regime had served its purpose.” The EU slapped asset freezes on senior figures, including Mubarak, his wife, two sons and their wives, after he was toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings following thirty years in charge.
The deposed president died in February of last year at the age of 91.
The sanctions — which were reviewed annually — included asset freezes on holdings located in the EU and a ban on any citizens or entities from the 27-nation bloc making funding available to those on the blacklist.
EU member countries imposed the sanctions on Mubarak and his family in March 2011 based on lawsuits filed against them in Egypt for alleged embezzlement of state funds.
Mubarak and his family had challenged the punitive measures in court.
Egypt suffered years of instability in the wake of Mubarak’s ouster.
President Muhammad Mursi took power in 2012 before the military toppled him in 2013 following mass protests against Mursi’s rule. Former military chief Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi became president later that year.
To defeat, or at least get the better of, the Covid 19 pandemic, the larger segment of the world’s citizens must become immune to it. The challenge then is to make the vaccine available to poor citizens as well as rich ones. It goes without saying, “No one is safe unless everyone is safe.”
It is generally acknowledged that countries would put their own first, and it would be extremely difficult for a leader of a country to put the poor and vulnerable of other countries before his own population, but the ramifications of such an approach will be detrimental to the whole world including rich countries themselves. Tedros Adhanom of the World Health Organization, WHO, said that everyone will remain at risk if the “me-first approach” continues since it will “ultimately prolong the pandemic,” and allow “more opportunity for variants that resist the vaccines to emerge and Covid-19 outbreaks to reignite, including in rich countries.” Tedros Adhanom also rightly said, “…there is now a real risk that the poorest and most vulnerable will be trampled in the stampede for vaccines.”
And so they are. Poorer countries have fallen behind in the inoculation process. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and analysis division, describes the imbalance. It gives a gloomy but pragmatic picture of when countries will reach widespread vaccination coverage. By late 2021, the US and most European countries will have reached that stage; by mid 2022 Russia, China, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and several South American countries will have similar coverage; but poorer economies, mostly in Africa, vaccination coverage “will not be achieved before 2023, if at all.”
Evidently, rich countries have had first dibs on the vaccine supplies, for, as a precautionary, understandable measure, many had pre-ordered more vaccines than they would need; in fact, they bought enough vaccines to vaccinate their entire populations four or five times over. True, these vaccine supplies have yet to arrive in each country, but they have been allocated already.
Canada, a case in point, purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate each Canadian five times. In the case of the US, it pre-purchased vaccines that can cover its population four times over. The same goes for the EU, which ordered 1.6 billion doses for an adult population of 375 million, with a surplus of millions of double vaccinations. Britain, too, purchased over 200 million vaccines for an adult population of 54 million—another surplus of 165 million. According to the BBC, “…even though rich nations represent just 14% of the world's population, they have bought up 53% of the most promising vaccines so far.”
Besides, by buying excessively, rich countries made vaccine prices prohibitively expensive for poorer countries. The pre-purchase agreements “made sense in the world we lived in six months ago, because we didn’t yet know which, if any, of the vaccine candidates would come to market,” said Andrea Taylor, a Duke University researcher. But the result was that, “by November, high-income countries had already pre-purchased the rights to 3.8 billion vaccine doses with options for another 5 billion.”
So what now? How can this dilemma be overcome? Several initiatives are taking place that may stabilize the vaccine equilibrium between those who have and those who have not. One support mechanism came from AstraZeneca, which pledged more than half of its doses to developing countries. It also promised to sell its vaccines at cost price in perpetuity.
And while some countries seem to be hoarding the vaccines, China is determined to erase the image it projected during the initial mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and has, according to Associated Press, “pledged roughly 10 times more vaccines abroad than it distributed at home.” Though its population, 1.4 billion, will need an average of 2 billion doses, China has shipped millions of doses to developing nations.
Another option would be if companies producing the vaccines collaborate with other manufacturers across the world in production. This would enable outlets in other locations to produce more vaccines. AstraZeneca is already working with Serum Institute in India, but it remains the only company implementing that option.
Then countries with access to a surplus of vaccines can donate them to countries in need. If rich countries’ orders are fulfilled, extra vaccines can be reallocated free or at minimal cost. This will depend on the goodwill of governments and their relationships to countries short of vaccine supplies. However, vaccines do expire and it would be unthinkably wasteful if they are left unused, so it would make more sense to redistribute them to those who don’t have access to enough or any doses.
Norway did just that. Since it will have access to three times as many vaccines as it needs, it pledged to reallocate the surplus. Norway’s Minister of International Development, Dag-Inge Ulstein said, “The distribution will be started gradually and in parallel to the current vaccination of the Norwegian population as soon as relevant vaccines are approved.” Now it’s time for other countries to follow suit.
But the real saviour for poor countries will be the COVAX Vaccine. COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access is an initiative launched by the WHO to ensure vaccine access to the world's most vulnerable. “The initial goal is to procure and fairly distribute 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines across almost 200 countries and economies by the end of 2021.” Most importantly, COVAX also aims to ensure that “middle- and lower-income countries that cannot fully afford to pay for COVID-19 vaccines themselves get equal access to them, just as higher-income, self-financing countries do and at the same time.”
And the vaccines have started arriving in African countries. According to WHO, “The campaigns in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire follow deliveries to both countries last week with Ghana taking delivery of 600 000 doses on February 24 and Côte d’Ivoire 504 000 doses two days later. Both countries received the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).”
Ankara and Cairo never let their differences get in the way of trade. That’s now paying off.
The Brotherhood never got in the way of business. Photographer: Adem Altan/AFP
Turkey’s government is seeking a thaw in relations with the Arab world after a long cold spell. Ankara seems especially keen on improving ties with Cairo. Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Bloomberg: “A new chapter can be opened, a new page can be turned in our relationship with Egypt as well as other other Gulf countries to help regional peace and stability.”
If Kalin’s assertion reflected a change in tone, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu went farther, offering Egypt at least one specific benefit from improved relations: A boundary agreement on the maritime zones claimed by the two countries in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean. Reports in the pro-government Turkish media suggest Ankara is opening channels to Cairo with a view to resolving their maritime-zoning conflicts.
Egypt has not publicly responded to these overtures, but tea-leaf readers in Cairo also see signs of a thaw with Turkey over Libya, where the two countries have been on opposite sides of the civil war. They point to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s warm reception of Libya’s new prime minister, Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, who is close to Ankara.
Nevertheless, it would be premature to predict a warm Turco-Egyptian embrace. The reality is more complex, because tensions between the two countries were always tempered by their material interests. That said, some degree of friction is likely to persist given their competition for influence in Libya, Ankara’s support for Islamists and historic differences between Turkey and Egypt’s other partners in the Mediterranean.
A number of external factors in 2020 led Egypt to reevaluate its foreign-policy priorities, focusing on particular challenges while deescalating other areas of competition. These factors include the electoral defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump, military setbacks for Egyptian allies in Libya, the failure of American mediation of the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the normalization agreementsbetween several Arab states and Israel, which threaten Egypt’s claim to being the West’s mediator of choice in Palestine.
The reduction of tensions with Turkey is to some extent the consequence of the overall recalibration of Cairo’s concerns. The differences between the two countries remain unresolved, but they matter less in the new scheme of things.
The biggest bone of contention is Turkey’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan roundly condemned the coup that overthrew the Brotherhood-led government of Mohamed Morsi and brought General Sisi to power. Erdogan has continued to aim rhetorical broadsides at Sisi ever since. The Egyptians have responded in kind.
Trade continued largely unhindered even when Turkey intervened in Libya, which the Egyptians regard as being in their sphere of influence. The Sisi government, along with the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France, had backed the eastern rebel forces under Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Haftar looked almost certain to seize the capital when Turkish military support allowed the government to strike back, sending Haftar into headlong retreat.
At one point, Sisi was so alarmed by the success of the Turkish-backed forces that he threatened direct Egyptian military intervention on Haftar’s behalf. This may have helped to halt the Tripoli government’s advance, but the fear — however fleeting — of having to put Egyptian boots on the ground in Libya encouraged Cairo to put more diplomatic effort into ending the fighting.
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Photo Courtesy: Mohamed Reyad
The EU announced it was ending sanctions imposed in 2011 against nine Egyptians, including the family of Hosni Mubarak. (File/AFP)
