Arabic media review

Morsi skips soldier funerals, but who is really to blame for Rafah attack?

Defecting Syrian PM really is in Jordan; Iran condemns the US for kidnapping its nationals

Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel

Relatives of slain Egyptian soldiers mourn during their funerals, July 7 (photo credit: AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Relatives of slain Egyptian soldiers mourn during their funerals, July 7 (photo credit: AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Iran’s refusal to allow the “axis of resistance” (a code word for the Syrian regime) to fall leads the news in Arab dailies Wednesday. The surprising statement by Iranian National Security chief Saeed Jalili followed a parallel promise by Bashar Assad to “root out the terrorists.”

London-based daily Al-Hayat features a photo of the two officials sitting together in conference room in Damascus. An official Jordanian source (unnamed) tells the daily that defecting Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab is in fact in Jordan, following a Jordanian denial by government spokesman Sameeh Maaytah that he was in the kingdom.

Saudi-owned news website Elaph writes that the defection of Hijab is a “PR blow” to the Assad regime, but not a “fatal blow.” The website notes that the defection is reminiscent of “the beginning of the end of the Gaddafi regime” in Libya.

Saudi-owned news website Elaph writes that the defection of Hijab is a ‘PR blow’ to the Assad regime, but not a ‘fatal blow’

London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, featuring a photo of a Syrian man carrying an elderly woman on his back as battles rage around them in Aleppo, notes in its headline that Turkey has condemned an Iranian threat to “transfer the revolution to it (to Turkey).” The daily also highlights a vague warning by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton against those who send “terrorists by proxy” to Syria.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya reports that Iran has summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents US interests in the country, to condemn the abduction of 48 Iranian nationals in Syria. Iran blames the United States for involvement in the kidnapping. The chief of the North America Desk in Iran’s foreign ministry, Reza Zabib, is quoted by the channel as calling the US a patron of terrorist groups and rebels in Syria. Zabib called on the US to use its influence there and bring about the release of the captive Iranians.

Rafah victims laid to rest in the absence of President Morsi

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is getting lots of flak for not attending the funerals Tuesday of the slain Egyptian soldiers in Sunday night’s terrorist attack near the Rafah border crossing.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi highlights Morsi’s absence while noting that Supreme Council of the Armed Forces chief Mohammad Hussein Tantawi did attend.

Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera, in an unusually flattering headline, highlights Israel’s proposition to “help” Egypt in fighting terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya reports that the Egyptian army has completely encircled the northern Sinai city of Al-Arish, noting that helicopters are observed flying above and that officers have been called back from their vacations. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Egyptian forces attacked terror cells in the area.

“Lawlessness in Sinai provides fertile ground for Islamist extremists,” reads the headline of Elaph. The news channel calls the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords between Israel and Egypt “a pillar of peace in the Middle East,” noting that extremist activity in the area has increased since the eruption of the Egyptian revolution in 2011.

Al-Hayat columnist Abdullah Iskandar criticizes the Muslim Brotherhood’s declaration that Israel was behind the attack “before any serious and credible investigation,” adding that the statement simply echoed the Hamas statement coming from Gaza.

‘Focusing on the fact that Israel stands to benefit from these terrorist attacks does not remove our responsibility to search for the real perpetrators’

“Although Mossad does not hesitate to carry out killings when Israeli interests require it to, rushing to accuse it of perpetrating the last attack in Israel is an affront to the facts on the ground and the situation in Sinai,” writes Iskandar.

But jumping to conclusions doesn’t seem to bother Al-Quds Al-Arabi’s editor. In an editorial titled “Israeli fingerprints in the Sinai attack,” the editor claims the Israelis had information about the attacks which it did not provide Egypt.

“If these [Israeli] agencies had this information, why did they not pass it on to the Egyptian security forces to foil these attacks? By god, they wanted to stir strife between the Egyptians and the the Palestinians, who share common blood, beliefs and history.”

In Egypt, by contrast, some commentators have fumed at Morsi’s government for not taking the Israeli warnings seriously.

Al-Hayat’s Abdullah Iskandar claims blaming Israel is just an excuse.

“Focusing on the fact that Israel stands to benefit from these terrorist attacks does not remove our responsibility to search for the real perpetrators. With their actions, they serve the Israeli interests be it by weakening security in Egypt or by giving Israeli propaganda excuses regarding cooperation with the Palestinians,” writes Iskandar.

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