Mubarak says he’ll run for re-election
Shibin El-Kom, Egypt Days after Egypt’s deadliest terrorist attack, President Hosni Mubarak made the long expected announcement Thursday that he will run for re-election, promising new anti-terrorism laws and calling for a summit of Arab leaders in battered Sharm el-Sheik.
Mubarak, a key U.S. ally, will face an election opponent in the September vote for the first time in a quarter century in office. He made a splashy start to his campaign with a nationally televised address surrounded by supporters cheering and reciting poetry in his honor.
The 77-year-old leader presented himself as Egypt’s protector from instability and a proponent of reform, pledging further democratic change – a promise his opponents quickly derided.
The call for an Arab summit next week in Sharm el-Sheik – the Red Sea resort rocked by terrorist attacks that killed dozens – aimed to signal a strong hand in the face of bombings many Egyptians fear mean a new wave of militant violence and damage to an ailing economy.
The summit will deal with the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, Iraq and the “many challenges that might drive the region to dangerous paths,” Mubarak said.
He vowed to continue “our battle against terrorism and the threat it represents to people and Egypt’s future … never relinquishing the nation’s security and stability.”
Meanwhile, the dragnet in the Sharm el-Sheik terrorist attacks widened Thursday as police detained at least 25 people in the desert mountains around the Red Sea resort and searched for a green pickup truck that may have been the getaway vehicle for some attackers.
U.S. military may guard foreign envoys in Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq The U.S. military is considering offering protection to foreign diplomats in Baghdad after al-Qaida agents killed three Arab envoys this month, the American ambassador said Thursday.
“Coalition forces … are planning to look at this problem and see what could be done to fix the security for the diplomats,” Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters. “It’s very important for foreign diplomats who come here to have a sense of security.”
He spoke a day after Iraq’s most feared terrorist group announced it killed two Algerian diplomats – including the country’s chief envoy in Iraq – because of their government’s ties to the United States and its crackdown on Islamic extremists.
Chief envoy Ali Belaroussi and diplomat Azzedine Belkadi were kidnapped outside their embassy in Baghdad’s western neighborhood of Mansour. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The group – headed by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – also claimed responsibility for the kidnap-slaying of Egypt’s top envoy and the attempted abduction of two other Muslim diplomats in a campaign to undercut support for the new Iraqi government within the Arab and Muslim world.