Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
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Cairo Concerned Over Escalating Regional Crisis

A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)
A photo taken from a position in southern Lebanon, close to the border with Israel shows smoke billowing from the site of a rocket fired from the Lebanese side towards the Israeli village of Metullah on August 3, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by AFP)

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed on Saturday to his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib his country's "deep concern over the dangerously increasing pace of escalation" in the region.

Abdelatty affirmed, in a phone call with Bou Habib, Egypt's support to Lebanon in confronting the threats surrounding it, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wednesday's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

Revenge for the killing of the Hamas leader will be "severe and at an appropriate time, place, and manner", the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said in a statement, blaming the "terrorist Zionist regime" of Israel for his death.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran's new president.

The assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon has also the region holding its breath for retaliation against Israel on either front, or both. Calls for people to leave Lebanon sharpened as flight activity there cooled.



Abir Moussi Submits Candidacy for Tunisian Presidency from Prison

Head of the Free Destourian Party Abir Moussi. (AFP)
Head of the Free Destourian Party Abir Moussi. (AFP)
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Abir Moussi Submits Candidacy for Tunisian Presidency from Prison

Head of the Free Destourian Party Abir Moussi. (AFP)
Head of the Free Destourian Party Abir Moussi. (AFP)

Members of the defense team of Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party, submitted on Saturday her candidacy for the presidency of Tunisia to the Independent High Authority for Elections.

The elections are set for October 6.

One of her lawyers said the file has nearly all the required documents.

Moussi, a lawyer and activist, was arrested in front of the presidential palace in October 2023 when she filed an appeal against a presidential decree that she said paralyzed state institutions.

She faces another complaint from the elections authority over remarks that questioned its integrity.

Several opposition members have been jailed on various charges, such as conspiring against the state.

The opposition accuses President Kais Saied and the authorities of exerting pressure on its candidates and undermining democracy.

Saied announced on July 19 that he would seek another five-year term. Elected in 2019, Saied dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree in a move the opposition described as a coup. He has said he will not hand over power to what he calls "non-patriots".

As an Aug. 6 deadline for registering as a presidential candidate looms, 11 opposition figures who hope to run against Saied issued a joint statement this week criticizing the authorities, Reuters reported.

"The violations have affected most of the serious candidates to the point that they appear to indicate a desire to exclude them (from the election) and restrict them in order to make way for a specific candidate," they said in the joint statement.

None of the 11 opposition candidates have yet obtained a document certifying that they have no criminal record - a new condition - which will then allow them to register.