Saturday, September 10, 2011

'Emergency Law' (sort of) reinstated in Egypt after attack on Israeli & threat to Saudi embassies

"... Police and military forces remain stationed in front of the Israeli embassy, the Saudi embassy and the Giza security headquarters, which was also attacked late on Friday night...
They had also been angered by Israel's killing of six Egyptian border guards last month, during an operation targeting gunmen who reportedly had killed Israeli civilians in cross-border raids...
The protesters were demanding the closure of the Israeli embassy, an end to gas exports to Israel and nullification of the Camp David agreement between the two countries.
A plane carrying Yitzhak Levanon, the Israeli ambassador, and around 80 others landed in Israel on Saturday,... Six Israeli embassy security officers who were still in the building early on Saturday morning were later rescued by Egyptian commandos, and then sent back to Tel Aviv on a second plane from Cairo ...
Israel's Ynet news website said Netanyahu, due to speak at a press conference later on Saturday, had thanked the US President Barack Obama for his diplomatic assistance. "The mob attack on the Israeli embassy is a serious incident but could have been worse had the rioters managed to get through the last door and hurt our people," Ynet quoted Netanyahu as saying. "I'm glad we managed to prevent a disaster and would like to thank the US President Barack Obama for his help," he said. Obama earlier had called on Egypt to "honour its international obligations" to protect the diplomats and told Netanyahu that Washington was taking steps to resolve the situation. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, also spoke with Mohamed Kamel Amr, the Egyptian foreign minister, who cut short a trip to Poland to return home to tackle the situation. Essam Sharaf, the Egyptian prime minister, also called a crisis cabinet meeting in the wake of the attack..."

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