Opacity surrounding Egypt’s former president, and its next

All Arab dailies focus on Egypt Thursday, highlighting the opacity of its political situation. Egyptians still do not know when the election results will be announced, nor the exact clinical state of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

“Egypt: Uncertainty surrounding Egypt’s former president and its next, and security deployment,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat. The daily reports that Egypt’s elections commission has hinted the result announcement will be postponed until after the candidates’ appeals are heard. The daily features a photo of four bored-looking soldiers guarding the door of the military hospital where Mubarak is hospitalized.

London-based daily Al-Hayat leads with an almost identical report. Its headline reads: “Uncertainty regarding the time of announcement of the presidential results.” The daily reports that a movement called “Judges for Egypt” has established a parallel elections commission which corroborated the Muslim Brotherhood’s claim of victory, by a margin of 800,000 votes.

London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi focuses its Egypt coverage on Hosni Mubarak. Its headline, with an editorial tang, reads “Egypt between ‘half a president’ and the death of ‘the last Pharaoh.'” By half a president, the daily refers to the diminished prerogatives of the Egyptian president under the military-issued constitutional declaration. Al-Quds Al-Arabi claims the existence of a media blackout surrounding Mubarak’s health condition, noting that the state Middle East News Agency (MENA) never retracted its report that Mubarak is clinically dead.

“Egypt’s looming explosion,” reads the lead editorial by Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor-in-chief Abd Al-Bari Atwan, where he equates Egypt to a volcano waiting to erupt.

“Egypt is standing atop a volcano about to erupt and send lava in all directions. There are two main events that could set it off. The first is an announcement by the High Elections Commission defining the identity of the next president. The second is the revelation of deposed president Hosni Mubarak’s real health condition.”

“The two factors are closely interconnected, as we cannot rule out that the announcement of the former president’s death is a smokescreen meant to precede the more dangerous surprise, meaning the victory of General Ahmad Shafiq in the presidential elections.”

Egyptian media is no less dramatic in its coverage. The headline of independent Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Youm reads “Mubarak’s health is a ‘military secret,'” while the headline of establishment daily Al-Ahram reads “Accusations of forgery plague the presidential elections and the High Commission postpones result announcement until after the appeals.”

“Even after the nomination of a president in Egypt, the question in Egypt remains whether the January 25 revolution will enter a state of ‘coma,'” writes Al-Hayat columnist Zoheir Quseibaty. “In other words, surrounding the ability of SCAF decisions to bind civil powers, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which remained at the forefront of the revolutionary track only a few days ago.”

Daily reports ‘war of annihilation’ in Syria

While all eyes are on Egypt Thursday, violence in Syria seems to only be getting worse, judging by Arab news coverage.

“A war of annihilation in Latakia and strikes in Damascus; Hama and its surroundings are bombarded,” reads the headline of A-Sharq Al-Awsat. The article features a young Syrian refugee carrying his belongings wrapped up in a blanket as he leaves the city of Homs.

Arab media outlets are reporting between 61 (Al-Quds Al-Arabi) and 65 (Al-Jazeera) fatalities in Syria Wednesday. Al-Quds Al-Arabi focuses its headline on Russian president Vladimir Putin who “opposes the use of violence for regime change in Syria.”

“Clinton to Moscow to untie the Syrian bind,” reads the headline in Al-Hayat. It reports that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will head to Moscow next week to discuss new options for stopping the warfare in Syria.

A-Hayat columnist Hassan Haidar notes the deep gap in the positions of the United States and Russia surrounding Syria.

“Washington, together with the Syrian opposition and the Arab world, does not want a scenario for stopping the violence to be limited to a security plan. They want a broader political transitional solution. However, the Russians refuse political change as a precondition for stopping the violence,” he writes.

Hamas agrees to ceasefire in Gaza, following Egyptian pressure

Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera reports that the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has agreed to a ceasefire with Israel.

In a statement, Hamas said that it has agreed to hold its fire — along with the other Palestinian factions in Gaza — “as long as the occupation forces stop their aggression against the Gaza Strip.”

The statement went on to say that the Palestinian side has shown the utmost restraint in its reaction to Israel, firing merely 96 missiles and nine mortar shells into Israel. Nine Palestinians were reported dead since Monday, Al-Jazeera claimed.