Significant Middle East Developments

Egypt. After days of delay, Egyptian election officials announced on Sunday that Mohamed Morsi had won 52 percent of the runoff vote and would become Egypt’s next president. Hours after being declared the winner, Morsi said that he would “be a president for all Egyptians” and called for national unity. Morsi, Egypt’s first Islamist and first fairly-elected president, resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood to take up the post. He moved into deposed president Mubarak’s old office on Monday to begin work on forming a new government. Read more »

Following yesterday’s historic announcement that Mohamed Morsi had won Egypt’s first competitive presidential election, I discussed the implications of this development with former New York Times diplomatic correspondent Bernard Gwertzman in an interview featured on CFR.org and published below. Read more »

Significant Middle East Developments

Egypt. Egyptian election officials announced yesterday that they were postponing the announcement of the country’s presidential runoff, plunging the country into further uncertainty. Official results of the presidential election will not be released until Sunday, purportedly to evaluate allegations of electoral abuse and voter fraud. The election commission had been expected to confirm a winner today, and, based on a public vote count, to have named Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. Read more »

As the international community debates what, if anything, to do about Syria, the daily bloodshed and carnage there continues. For those just trying to survive, life has become quite brutal. One recent blog post, by Homs resident and blogger “Big Al,” provides a powerful and upsetting description of daily life in his city. Big Al, who tweets under the handle @BigAlBrand, readily agreed for me to share some of his recent observations from his post “Life in Homs” which I include below. The entire blog is available here. Read more »

Significant Middle East Developments

Egypt. Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court today deemed unconstitutional both the law governing the country’s recent parliamentary elections and the “Political Disenfranchisement Law” that would have prevented presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq from running in the upcoming elections. As a result, the second round of Egypt’s presidential elections are slated to occur as scheduled on June 16-17 pitting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Mursi against Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under ousted Hosni Mubarak. Read more »

Significant Middle East Developments

Egypt. The trial of Hosni Mubarak concluded on Saturday with the three-judge panel sentencing the former Egyptian president and his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, to life in prison as “accessories to murder.” Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Alaa, were acquitted on corruption charges, and the six senior police officers considered directly responsible for the killing of Tahrir Square protesters were also acquitted. The verdict immediately spurred thousands of protesters to spill into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez. Read more »

Length of Conflict

15 months

Deaths

Total opposition deaths: 12,360 – 15,842
Opposition deaths since April 12 ceasefire: 2,391
Civilian: 11,403 – 14,535
Children: 1,012 – 1,178
Opposition military: 957 – 1307
Regime military: 3,000 Read more »