On Friday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a discussion with Amr Hamzawy on the current political transition in Egypt. The speakers were Amr Hamzawy, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center and one of Egypt’s best known liberal members of parliament and media personalities, Marina Ottaway, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at Carnegie Endowment for ...

On Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event titled “The Arab Awakening: Progress or Peril?” The discussion featured former congresswoman and Woodrow Wilson Center President Jane Harman and Member of Parliament and former senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Amr Hamzawy. The event focused on developments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt since their respective presidents were overthrown, with an emphasis on Egypt. The event was moderated ...

At least 20 people are reported dead, and hundreds injured in the Cairo district of Abbasiya after unknown attackers assaulted a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Defense. The attack began on Wednesday morning, and the military intervened after several hours of fighting and raised barricades to separate the protesters and unknown attackers. Medical personnel reported attacks against the hospital which initially took in the wounded, Dar al-Shefa hospital. Clashes ...

On Tuesday, Freedom House released their annual freedom of the press report entitled “Press Freedom in 2011: Breakthroughs and Pushback in the Middle East.” Dramatic improvements in media freedoms occurred in the region—specifically in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt—as citizens overthrew their autocratic leaders, ending an era of tightly censored media information. Tunisia and Libya made record-breaking improvements in 2011, transitioning from among the world’s most oppressive countries to partly free. Despite ...

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Egypt and closed its consulates there. The move comes in response to protests in front of the Saudi embassy in Cairo demanding the release of Egyptian lawyer and activist Ahmed al-Gizawi. Gizawi was arrested on April 17 in Saudi while on umra, an Islamic pilgrimage. Initially, Gizawi was reportedly arrested for defaming the king, due to a lawsuit he had brought in ...

In a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland denied that eight American NGOs had been banned from conducting business in Egypt by the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs. The organizations reportedly (Arabic) included the Carter Center, Seeds of Peace, and Coptic Orphans. The news was originally announced on Monday according to Egyptian state media organization MENA. The news could not be confirmed by the eight organizations, and spokesmen from the ...

Egypt’s Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) announced on Thursday its final list of candidates whom are eligible to run in the presidential elections. Thirteen candidates were accepted, including Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, former Arab League head Amr Moussa, and moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh. Ahmed Shafiq had initially been disqualified after the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) ratified a law that ...

Yesterday, the International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report in attempt to explain the often misconceived views of the Egyptian Revolution’s once supposed caretakers: the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The report gives a thorough timeline of the fickle transition from the onset of the revolution until today. The report goes into detail about how the SCAF views itself, how it views the current political actors, as well as ...

Egypt’s Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs rejected the applications of eight American nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which means the groups can no longer operate in Egypt legally, according to state –run MENA. The eight organizations include the Carter Center, Coptic Orphans, and Seeds of Peace. Sanne van den Bergh, the field office director for the Carter Center, said the group had not yet been contacted by the government and said ...

On Thursday, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosted a discussion entitled “Egypt After the Revolution: What’s next?” The panelists discussed the political situation in Egypt more than a year after mass protests forced Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak to step down. Currently, the potential of Egypt's revolution has yet to be realized and both the direction of the country and its relations with the U.S. are uncertain. The discussion featured Ambassador of ...

On Friday, Freedom House hosted their Director in Egypt and Tunisia at their office in order to share updates on socio-political situations in the respective countries, and NGO operations in the current challenging environment. Dr. Nancy Okail, director of Freedom House in Egypt and Fathi Zabaar, director of Freed House in Tunisia shared thoughts on the developing situation. Charles Dunne, director of the Middle East and North Africa programs at ...

On Wednesday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event discussing the first book to analyze the rise of Islamist groups in the wake of the Arab Spring. The speakers were Robin Wright, a USIP-Wilson Center distinguished scholar, Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and international affairs at Georgetown University, Samer Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University, and David Ottaway, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. ...

Yussef Auf writes in the Atlantic Council about the crisis surrounding the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing Egypt’s new constitution and his proposed solution. Auf begins by lamenting the period after Mubarak’s resignation on February 11 until March 19, 2011, when Egyptians voted for a referendum to the current constitution and laments, “the extent of the error made by those who backed the elections-first formula”. Auf makes three observations. He first ...

On Wednesday, the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) announced that it will uphold a ban on ten presidential candidates. The ban is expected to have a major effect on the race, as three of the front-runners have been disqualified. The three are Salafi Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat al-Shater, and former intelligence chief and Vice-President Omar Suleiman. The commission had originally ruled to ban the candidates last Saturday, ...