Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for November 23, 2011
Newsline: Embassy Assists American Students Held in Cairo Protests
Three students at the American University in Cairo were arrested and accused of participating in violent protests in the Egyptian capital, the university said, after images of the men were broadcast on satellite and cable television channels around the world. The Egyptian state broadcaster, Nile TV, showed police video of the men standing against a wall in front of a table displaying bottles filled with colored liquid – identified as firebombs – along with several identification cards and at least oneIndianadriver’s license said to belong to one of the men. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry, Adel Saeed, said the men had been arrested by the police on Monday “for throwing Molotov cocktails from atop the A.U.C. building” nearTahrir Square, the epicenter of Egyptian protest. The university has a campus near the square with several low buildings; the main campus building had been used by government forces during the revolutionary battles in the square in February. As of Tuesday afternoon local time, the men remained in police custody, the ministry spokesman said. “We are waiting for them to be transferred to the prosecutors office,” he added. “A lawyer from the embassy is with them now.” The United States Embassy inCairosaid that it was “unable to confirm reports of detention of any specific American citizen” but that it was investigating “all reports.” The arrests of the three Americans came as deadly street clashes between security forces and protesters stretched into a fourth day, with hundreds of thousands of people converging on Tahrir Square to voice their opposition to the military-led government. The men were studying abroad for the semester and were scheduled to return to theUnited Statesat the end of this term, said a spokeswoman for the American University in Cairo, Morgan Roth.
Newsline: Pakistan envoy resignation is ‘internal issue’ – US
The White House said on Tuesday that the resignation of Pakistan’s ambassador to theUnited States, Husain Haqqani, was an “internal issue” for Pakistan but praised him as “a very close partner.” “We, as we have said, see this very much as an internal issue relative to Pakistan,” deputy national security adviser for strategic communications Ben Rhodes told reporters. “He’s been a very close partner, of course, with theUnited Statesand we’ve appreciated the work we’ve done with him. But at the same time we’re certain that we’ll be able to work with whomever the next Pakistani ambassador is.” Pakistan’s government said earlier that it had asked Haqqani to resign and ordered a probe into claims that he sought American help against the country’s powerful military. Haqqani, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari, has played a key role in helping Pakistan’s civilian government navigate turbulent relations with Washington which nosedived over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. US senate foreign relations committee chairman John Kerry, who has played a key role in often rocky relations between the two uneasy allies, said in a statement he was “sorry to learn” of Haqqani’s resignation.
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