'Muslim Brothers plotting overthrow of Gulf states'
07/26/2012 13:03
Dubai police chief warns of "international plot" against Gulf states, says Iran, Syria and MB must know Gulf is a red line.
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| A POLITICAL LINE IN THE SAND IS EVER SHIFTING … |
DUBAI - Dubai's chief of police has warned of an "international plot" to overthrow the governments of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared to counter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran.
The comments by Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.
"There's an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general...This is preplanned to take over our fortunes," Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries...The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well."
Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.
UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning "crimes against the security of the state".
"I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble," Khalfan said on Wednesday.
"We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/monica_monica_I0JPsGNhfQtfe3IexYuw1K#ixzz21pFHHGKD
The comments by Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.
"There's an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general...This is preplanned to take over our fortunes," Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries...The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well."
Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.
UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning "crimes against the security of the state".
"I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble," Khalfan said on Wednesday.
"We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term."
Egyptians taunt Hillary Clinton by chanting 'Monica, Monica'
Hillary greeted with tomatoes and Lewinsky taunts in Egypt
Last Updated: 8:05 AM, July 16, 2012
Posted: 1:17 AM, July 16, 2012
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Now that’s a low blow!
A crowd of tomato-tossing Egyptians taunted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday with chants of “Monica, Monica.”
The jeers — a reference to the affair her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, had with White House intern Monica Lewinsky — came as the secretary of state was visiting the newly reopened US Consulate in Alexandria.
The demonstrators also shouted, “Get out, Clinton,” and threw shoes and water bottles in addition to tomatoes at her motorcade.
While neither Clinton nor her vehicle — which were guarded by police in riot gear — were struck by the flying objects, an Egyptian official wasn’t as lucky.
AFP/GETTY IMAGES
CHEAP SHOTS: Egyptian protesters gather on a street yesterday near the US Consulate in Alexandria, where Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was speaking at a ceremony to mark its reopening (inset).
EPA
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The official was hit with a tomato in the face.
The protesters were angry over suspicions the United States helped the Muslim Brotherhood win recent elections in Egypt.
A day earlier, angry crowds had gathered outside her hotel.
“I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business in Egypt of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot,” she said yesterday.
“We are prepared to work with you as you chart your course, as you establish your democracy,”
Clinton said the United States wanted to back a “real democracy” in which “no group or faction or leader can impose their will, their ideology, their religion, their desires on anyone else.”
Clinton also met with groups of women and Christians who fear they will be relegated to second-class status during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
America’s top diplomat was in Alexandria to mark the reopening of the consulate.
The consulate was closed in 1993 because of budget problems, but it has been reopened to boost the economy in the critical port city.
Clinton met on Saturday with newly elected president, Mohammed Morsi, who is battling the military for control of the country.
His powers had been limited by the military days before he took office, and Morsi responded by reinstating an Islamist-dominated parliament that the army had disbanded.
Clinton met yesterday with Egypt’s top general, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, to discuss the issues. She then flew to Israel for top-level talks on Iran’s nuclear program and the Palestinian peace process.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/monica_monica_I0JPsGNhfQtfe3IexYuw1K#ixzz21pFHHGKD
