The Mubarak regime was badly shaken Thursday night, Jan. 27, when Egypt's most powerful opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, ordered its teeming membership to join the protest movement raging in Cairo and other cities since Tuesday after Friday (Jan. 28) prayers. With many millions about to join the demonstrations, the president has little choice but to order the army in - without being entirely certain that it will obey orders to crack down on disorder.
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has sent his defense minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi in secret to Washington to ask for US backing for his embattled regime against the street protest movement which gained in violence on its second day, Wednesday, Jan. 26. DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that in secret meetings, Tantawi warned top US officials that without a crackdown on the protesters, the regime was doomed. The Egyptian army is on emergency standby.
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Hundreds of opposition activists were arrested by Egyptian security forces in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez Wednesday in an attempt to quell the stormy anti-government demonstrations which began sweeping Egyptian cities Tuesday, Jan. 25, before they get out of hand. After nightfall, hundreds braved the ban on street protests and gatherings and took to the streets of Cairo and Suez. Cairo reports 500 arrests, while DEBKAfile's Middle East say the figure is closer to 1,000, including journalists.
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The two days Iran's new foreign minister Ali Salehi spent in Damascus from Saturday night, Jan. 22, were enough to keep Syrian president Bashar Assad in place for Tehran's final steps in its grab for Lebanon: installing Najib Mikati at the head of a puppet government, DEBKAfile reports.
He is committed to disqualify the Hariri tribunal as his first order of business. Pro-West Saad Hariri's supporters rally Tuesday as the US, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia stand aside.
DEBKAfile Special Report
The Russian investigators of the explosion which killed 35 people and injured 180 at Moscow's main airport Monday, Jan. 24, are certain it was not carried out by a female but by a single male suicide bomber, 30-40 years old, heavily-built and most likely of European appearance.They are looking for accomplices who may have witnessed the attack and left. The Russian government has launched a criminal probe into the security lapse that made the attack possible.
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