Headlines:

• Morsi Given Death Sentence
• Ramadi Falls
• Camp David turns into Arms Fair

Morsi Given Death Sentence

An Egyptian court recently pronounced death sentences on ousted president Mohammed Morsi and more than 100 other people over a mass prison break in 2011. Morsi is already serving a 20-year prison term for ordering the arrest and torture of protesters while in power. The Arab Spring offered much hope to the people of Egypt of real change, but within a year, this all fell apart and now the nightmare is being institutionalised. Morsi’s rule lasted for exactly one year but was characterised with instability with constant street protests organised by the secular factions that lost the elections. When he was eventually overthrown by the Sisi army the US termed this Democracy restored. Ever since, Sisi has been working to destroy the MB and any opposition to his rule, he has even gone beyond what Mubarak ever attempted. The authorities have banned the Muslim Brotherhood and arrested thousands of its supporters, protesters now attend their court hearings in wheelchairs and no-one can even get to Tahrir square. In a separate case, an Egyptian court banned hardcore football fan clubs known as the Ultras, who played a leading role in protests during the 2011 uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.  Sisi like his predecessors is using the state apparatus to maintain his rule, even gaining political cover by the US.

Ramadi Falls

The capital of the Anbar province, Ramadi, fell to ISIS on Saturday May 16, which is a bigger gain then the fall of Mosul. Anbar was the heart and soul of the Insurgency against US forces in the wake of the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. It was in towns and cities like Ramadi and Fallujah that al Qaeda’s relationship and partnership with the disaffected and marginalised Sunni tribes, many of whose members made up the officer corps of Saddam Hussein’s military, was forged. As soon as ISIS captured Ramadi, it ransacked the miltiary headquarters, seizing large amounts of equipment and killing any government and tribal leaders who had remained loyal to the government. Government troops as they had done in Mosul left their positions and ran away, rather than defend the city. The provincial government of Anbar appealed to the Baghdad government to retake the city by sending, not more government troops, but the Shi’ah militia trained and directed as well as controlled by Iranian advisers. This is another embarrassing episode for the Iraqi government and the US trained Iraqi army who failed to halt ISIS expansion. Despite showering billions on Iraq’s politics system, army and economy, after a decade the country remain in shambles.

Camp David Turns into Arms Fair

With the US-Iran rapprochement in full swing Obama invited the GCC nations to Camp David in order to persuade them of aligning with the US and accepting its normalisation of ties with Iran. Since the first Gulf War in 1991, the US used the Iranian threat to bring the Gulf nations under its military-security umbrella. The US has showered them with military platforms, using the Iranian threat as justification. But the US is now normalising relations with Iran, and its actions completely contradict what it has been saying for over two decades.  It was not surprising that only two of the six GCC monarchs planned to attend themselves, the rest sending deputies – and King Salman of Saudi Arabia waiting until the last moment to announce he is not coming.  In the end Obama only offered words with some support to defend against potential missile strikes, maritime threats and cyberattacks from Iran, calling his commitment to their security “ironclad.”  Obama stopped short of offering a formal defense pact that would obligate the United States to come to the nations’ aid if they were attacked.