Cairo newspapers published on Thursday morning focused on domestic affairs, especially preparations for parliamentary elections.
Al-Ahram
Al-Ahram reported that the Interior Ministry had placed its forces on maximum alert and finalized its election security plan. The first phase would begin with Egyptians abroad voting on Saturday and Sunday, followed by domestic voting on Sunday and Monday. The ministry issued a booklet of key instructions for police officers to help ensure the electoral process reflected well on the Egyptian people.
Security directors in different governorates met officers yesterday in response to instructions from Interior Minister Major General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar. They explained the scope and limits of the security role and election preparations, emphasizing the protection of citizens and assistance in exercising their voting rights easily. Police responsibilities were limited to securing polling stations from outside in cooperation with the judges responsible for them.
Major General Samir Abdel Meguid, head of the Interior Ministry’s General Elections Department, urged voters to turn out in large numbers. He said a comprehensive plan coordinated the armed forces and police and included preemptive operations against centers of thuggery and violence to ensure the third roadmap milestone proceeded successfully. Meanwhile, competition among lists and candidates intensified before the electoral silence period. Party and coalition leaders increased field visits to support candidates in different constituencies in the final stretch of the parliamentary race.
The newspaper said that, as part of continuing searches, raids, and pursuit of terrorist remnants, the air force had destroyed three vehicles at dawn yesterday in Al-Barth, south of Sheikh Zuweid, acting on intelligence. The vehicles carried weapons and ammunition intended for terrorist attacks. Aircraft continued reconnaissance and surveillance to detect further movements.
At the same time, North Sinai security forces discovered and destroyed a tunnel beneath a house in Rafah. Inside were military clothing, extremist-group insignia, advanced rifle scopes, batteries used to light tunnels, automatic-rifle magazines, a sniper-rifle mount, welding containers used in preparing explosive devices, and modern satellite communication equipment. Armed forces and police continued operations to eradicate terrorism and restore public safety.
The newspaper also reported that Egyptian National Railways had begun arranging funding for Transport Minister Dr. Saad El-Geyoushi’s decision to triple temporary workers’ pay. He praised the efforts of engineers, technicians, and workers in railway workshops, who worked under difficult and hazardous conditions.
During a visit to the Abu Radi railway workshops, El-Geyoushi said the production he saw matched international standards in some European workshops. With modest effort and development, Egypt could reach the highest maintenance standards and perhaps become a specialized center servicing neighboring countries’ trains. Addressing temporary workers’ problems, he ordered monthly pay increased from E£250 to E£750 pending a recruitment competition to bring them formally into the railway workforce.
Al-Gomhuria
Al-Gomhuria said the decisive vote on Egypt’s non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council would take place today during a historic General Assembly session in New York.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held intensive contacts and meetings with representatives of countries that had not yet decided how to vote. Reports indicated Egypt was effectively unopposed and its membership assured because of broad support from Arab partners in North Africa and the Arab east.
The newspaper said this was the fifth time Egypt had stood for Security Council membership since the United Nations was founded, noting that it had held a seat before the July 1952 revolution. Observers said President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s presence in New York during the latest General Assembly session had given the world a clear picture of Egypt’s support for global peace and stability and reaffirmed its commitment to regional and international responsibilities through its political and diplomatic activity.
Observers said Al-Sisi’s Egypt appeared without rival in the Arab and developing worlds and that he had made it a country of peace supported by countries across the world.
The newspaper reported that Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said the government was preparing a comprehensive economic and social reform program for the next parliament, covering the country’s current challenges and how to address them.
Speaking yesterday at Akhbar Al-Youm’s second economic conference, “Egypt’s Road to the Future: A Vision on the Ground,” he said the government was implementing President Al-Sisi’s instructions to broaden progress in every field, increase economic growth, and reduce the budget deficit and unemployment by a reported 5.1 percent annually.
Ismail stressed that controlling prices was a government challenge because it affected ordinary citizens, and that current challenges could only be met with support from all social groups. The government was working with oversight bodies against corruption, he said, because economic progress was impossible while corruption or corrupt officials remained, whatever their positions.
Investment Minister Ashraf Salman announced that a legal contract worth E£50 billion for a housing project presented at the Sharm El-Sheikh economic conference would be signed the following week. Speaking after meeting members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, he said projects announced at the conference included legally signed contracts, around 90 percent of which had been implemented, mostly in energy, electricity, and gas exploration. Four housing projects worth E£100 billion had already been converted into contracts.
He added that a ministerial group would soon consider new licenses for cement factories in Upper Egypt after setting the necessary conditions, including coal-use requirements specified by the Environment Ministry.
Al-Akhbar
Al-Akhbar said Prime Minister Sherif Ismail had outlined the government program to be presented to the next House of Representatives. Fighting corruption was a leading priority under President Al-Sisi’s instructions, alongside transparency and integrity, because progress was impossible with corruption. He affirmed the government’s determination to confront it at every level and position in cooperation with all oversight agencies.
In his opening address to the second Akhbar Al-Youm economic conference, the prime minister said the government would redouble efforts to ease citizens’ burdens, control prices, and expand and develop Agriculture Ministry outlets and consumer cooperatives to provide high-quality essential goods at suitable prices.
Ismail said the government would also reduce the budget deficit, lower unemployment in line with growth, create jobs, launch major national projects, and complete existing ones. He conveyed President Al-Sisi’s greetings and wishes for the conference’s success, thanked Akhbar Al-Youm and journalist Yasser Rizk for organizing it, and said the event formed part of national participation in serving Egypt’s interests and increasing development across the country.
Anton Moskvin, vice president of Russia’s nuclear energy company Rosatom, said an agreement to build Egypt’s El-Dabaa nuclear power plant was expected by year-end. During a visit to the United Arab Emirates, he said construction of Egypt’s first nuclear reactor at El-Dabaa would be completed no later than 2022 if the contract was signed at the end of the current year. The contract would include a Russian loan to Egypt. A senior company official had said negotiations were in their final stages.
The newspaper quoted Religious Endowments Minister Dr. Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa as saying all religious laws agreed on the sanctity of lives, property, and honor. The actions of ISIS and its associates, he said, abandoned both religion and humanity, while terrorist groups used accusations of unbelief to justify violations. Speaking at a seminar organized by the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research during the Cairo festival of artistic and media works at Media Production City, discussing the book “The Mirage in the War on Terrorism,” he said extreme rigidity on the right and extreme permissiveness on the left both threatened national security. Religion, civilization, and culture, he said, were founded on moderation. The ministry warned against membership in banned groups and pledged decisive action against anyone proven to belong to extremist groups or adopt their ideas.
Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Razek, head of the ministry’s religious sector, suspended four imams from preaching and religious teaching pending investigation into allegations that they adopted extremist ideas and belonged to a banned group, contrary to law and their duties.
International Affairs
Al-Ahram reported that Turkish authorities had dismissed Ankara’s police, intelligence, and security chiefs yesterday in an effort to ease public pressure after twin terrorist bombings killed 97 people the previous Saturday.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry said the regional police chief and heads of the intelligence and security departments had been suspended to ensure a proper investigation of the attack, in accordance with requests from senior police and civilian inspectors.
The dismissals came hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan acknowledged security failings and gaps in the capital. Observers regarded his comments as an attempt to appeal to public opinion after anger was directed at the Justice and Development Party government, potentially weakening its chances in the November parliamentary elections amid accusations that it failed to prevent Turkey’s worst attack.
Al-Gomhuria reported that a Palestinian young man was killed yesterday evening by Israeli police after attempting a stabbing at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s occupied Old City. Police fired when he tried to stab soldiers at the gate. A Palestinian girl was also wounded by live ammunition during clashes with Israeli forces near the Beit El settlement northeast of Al-Bireh.
The newspaper said a Palestinian child was struck by a rubber-coated metal bullet and dozens suffered tear-gas inhalation or beatings during renewed clashes yesterday in Surif, northeast of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian Red Crescent medical sources said an ambulance took a 13-year-old to Alia Government Hospital in Hebron after he was hit beneath the eye. Several others suffered gas inhalation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Washington had informed Moscow that the United States could not receive a high-level Russian diplomatic delegation to discuss settlement of the Syrian crisis.
Lavrov said Russia had presented the proposal announced by President Vladimir Putin yesterday: an American military delegation would visit Moscow to coordinate joint steps, followed by a high-level Russian delegation to Washington led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He said the proposal was raised during the UN General Assembly meetings in New York in September.
Al-Akhbar reported that an Iranian parliamentary delegation had arrived in Damascus ahead of an expected joint operation against opposition fighters in northwestern Syria. Russian and American military leaders were resuming talks to avoid collisions during operations in Syrian airspace. Lavrov nevertheless said the United States had rejected Putin’s proposal, made during his late-September New York visit, to exchange military delegations and coordinate fighting in Syria.