The ongoing demonstrations have eroded Ankara’s legitimacy domestically and abroad. The European Union issued a declaration expressing concern over the government’s heavy-handed response. Erdogan reacted to the resolution by lashing out. Today the European Union told Erdogan’s to grow up:

The European Union has scrapped a parliamentary visit to Turkey following the Ankara government’s stinging criticism of an EU resolution about the handling of Turkish protests. European parliamentarian Elmar Brok said that Wednesday’s visit of the legislative delegation was postponed following last week’s rebuke and told Turkey that it `’should understand how to deal with criticism.”

Some 400 demonstrators have been arressted, and the government will press criminal charges against at least 28 of them.

Erdogan met yesterday with top Hamas leaders. The Turkish prime minister has in the past sought to burnish his image in the wake of diplomatic erosion by aligning himself with Hamas. Analysts will read the Hamas delegation’s visit at least partly as an appeal to domestic constituencies.

[Photo: Avala / Wiki Commons]

Opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi are convinced that this is the best and perhaps the last opportunity to drive him from power… Morsi’s Islamist backers have vowed to defend the president with counter-demonstrations. Police have signaled they want to stay out of the conflict. The powerful military, widely suspected to be at odds with the president, is keeping its cards close to its chest. As a result, fears are high of potential violence on the day, the anniversary of Morsi’s 2012 inauguration as Egypt’s first freely elected leader.

Clashes between the two factions across Egypt have already left more than 100 injured, and both Morsi’s presidential palace and the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters have been reinforced. 

Meanwhile, Egypt’s tourism minister resigned in response to the appointment by Morsi of Adel al-Khayat to be governor of Luxor. Khayat an Islamist closely linked to a 1997 terrorist attack on tourists in Luxor, and his appointment as governor was taken as… insensitive:

Hesham Zazou said he “cannot continue in the role of tourism minister” a day after the appointment of Adel al-Khayat, a member of the political arm of ex-Islamic militant group Gamaa Islamiya, and other Islamist governors triggered unrest in several provinces. Gamaa Islamiya claimed responsibility for an attack on a major tourist attraction in the southern city of Luxor that killed 58 foreign tourists in 1997.

Prime Minister Hesham Qandil refused to accept Zazou’s resignation and asked him to remain in his post until the situation is reviewed, ministry spokeswoman Rasha al-Azaizy told the official MENA news agency. But she said Zazou insisted he would cease to work “as long as the new governor remains in his post, greatly harming tourism in Egypt generally and in Luxor specifically”.

Khayat was one of 17 governors appointed by Morsi to various regions around Egypt. Among the group were seven Muslim Brotherhood figures. Residents in many of the affected regions greeted the appointments with protests.

[Photo: Blueshade / Wiki Commons]

Arabic media outlets are now suggesting that the popular anger directed against the delegation was more substantial than originally reported, and that the delegation was forced to leave Egypt ahead of schedule for safety reasons.

Reports describe thousands of students and veterans attempting to storm the hotel, with hotel workers succeeding in closing the doors only after some protesters broke through. Other sources had Hamas political bureau Khaled Mashaal escaping the hotel via the back door, leaving behind Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the rest of the delegation. Demonstrators called for the delegation to be tried and arrested.

Many Egyptians, including large swaths of Egypt’s powerful military echelon, blame Hamas for facilitating attacks and kidnappings in the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas has been blamed both for maintaining tunnels between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Egyptian-controlled Sinai Peninsula, which are used by jihadists to transfer personnel and materials, and for directly fomenting Egyptian unrest stretching back to the 2011 Egyptian Arab Spring.

The Egyptian government temporarily closed the border crossing between Egypt and the Sinai after a spectacular August 2012 attack in which 16 Egyptian security officers were killed. Angry Egyptian protesters blocked the crossing again after the May 2013 kidnapping of seven Egyptian security officials.

Hamas has struggled to rebuild its shattered image. The protesters who besieged the Hamas delegation this week called for the Hamas officials to be captured and then swapped in exchange for kidnapped Egyptians still being held by Sinai terror groups.

[Photo: IranianTVOnline / YouTube]

Now, Sheikh Qaradawi, who once described Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah as heroes, describes Hezbollah as the party of Satan, and sees Nasrallah as a dangerous despot to the Muslim nation. Azhar scholars in Cairo attack Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and Hezbollah. Qaradawi praises Saudi scholars’ early stance in which they warned against Hezbollah and its hidden agenda against the Sunnis.

What did Nasrallah and his followers gain from preferring velayat-e faqih to Shi’ite Arabs? Iran, at worst, will go back inside its borders and return to its linguistic, cultural and geographic framework, because it is a complete nation. But what would Arab Shi’ites do, when they are part of the Arab fabric, or even the Muslim fabric, from Pakistan and India in the east, to Lebanon in the west, and from central Asia in the north, to Yemen in the south, not to mention in the diaspora in Europe, what would those do when the war has ended?

How much damage is being caused by Nasrallah to the future of coexistence in the Islamic world? This question is especially urgent as fatwas to support the oppressed are being issued in Indonesia in the Islamic Far East.

Velayat-e faqih – “guardianship of the jurisprudent” – is the legal and religious principle upon which the Islamic Republic of Iran was founded, under which authority is vested with the Supreme Leader. It has been explicitly and repeatedly embraced by Hezbollah.

The implication is that not just Hezbollah, but also Iran, is responsible for fomenting tensions between Sunnis and Shiite Arabs.

Hezbollah has made ‘protecting’ the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque a central pretext for pouring forces into Syria. Iranian officials seem to have adopted the same line:

Following Lebanese Hizballah’s official May recognition of their full-involvement in Syria, it would appear that Iran is not only becoming more open about their involvement, but also utilizing many of the same narrative points first honed by its regional Shia proxies… In June, three IRGC members were claimed by Iranian sources to have been killed while operating around Damascus’s Saydah Zaynab Shrine. Proclaiming IRGC members have been killed defending the shrine recycles the exact narrative Lebanese Hizballah and other Iraqi Shia groups have been utilizing for many months. This line also demonstrates that Tehran has become more comfortable with using sectarian-based messaging to convey why it is willing to lose men in the Syrian war.

[Photo: EuroNews / YouTube]

Heavy fighting resumed around the northern Syrian town of Aleppo, where rebels, buoyed by Obama’s decision last week to arm them, tried to block an advance into the north by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, who are supplied by Moscow. In new evidence of growing foreign support for the rebels, a Gulf source told Reuters Saudi Arabia had equipped fighters for the first time with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, their most urgent request. Rebels said Riyadh had also sent them anti-tank missiles… After months of indecision, the Obama administration announced it would arm the rebels because Assad’s forces had crossed a “red line” by using nerve gas. That has put Washington on the opposite side of the two-year-old civil war from its Cold War foe Moscow, which supplies weapons to Assad.

It is unclear if the Saudi move to arm the rebels was encouraged by the American decision to support the rebels openly. Another report identifies identifies France as facilitating weapons transfers:

The shoulder-fired weapons were obtained mostly from suppliers in France and Belgium, the source told Reuters. France had paid for the transport of the weapons to the region. The supplies were intended for General Salim Idriss, leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who was still the kingdom’s main “point man” in the opposition, the source said. The Gulf source said without elaborating that the kingdom had begun taking a more active role in the Syrian conflict in recent weeks due to the intensification of the conflict.

Meanwhile at the G8 summit – where Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin held a chilly summit – there was no specific mention of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad or his Hezbollah in the final summit communique [PDF]:

We reiterate our condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and wherever it occurs. We remain concerned about the increasingly fragmented and geographically diverse threat posed by terrorist groups including al-Qaeda and its affiliates. None of us are immune: since Camp David every G8 partner has been directly affected by acts of terrorism, either at home or overseas. We recognise the valuable leadership role of the UN, including through its Global Counter Terrorism Strategy, the work of the Roma Lyon Group and the importance of the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF). We are committed to working together to reduce the risk of terrorism for our own citizens, including from home-grown terrorism, and for our partners overseas. Our response must be robust, intelligent and based on a comprehensive approach, respecting human rights and the rule of law, which counters radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorist financing (including flows channelled through off-shore jurisdictions), and which tackles the conditions and grievances that terrorists seek to exploit.

The vague wording of the statement was taken as evidence that Russia had vociferously defended the Syrian regime, to which it provides material, diplomatic, and logistical support.

[Photo: Oxfam International / Flickr]

Iran continues to evade U.N. sanctions on its nuclear program by changing its supply routes, erecting new front companies, and shopping the world for lower grade parts not explicitly prohibited by the U.N. Security Council, but still capable of contributing to the assembly of a nuclear power reactor… The 45-page report – which summarizes the U.N. panel’s work over the past year – documents several cases in Europe and the Middle East where Iranian agents have sought to procure a host of industrial products — including valves, carbon fiber, and bellows — that can be used in a nuclear facility. The equipment, however, is not explicitly prohibited from being sold to Tehran, making it easier to get similar items through customs.

“The panel continues to be told by many states that Iran is seeking items that fall below established control thresholds but could be used for prohibited activities,” the report states. “All of the nuclear related cases investigated by the panel during its current mandate involve items that are not to be found among the [control] lists” that states are banned from supplying Tehran.

The report details 11 distinct cases in which Iran has violated sanctions, including an effort by an Iranian entity to 1,767 valves, which can be used in nuclear facilities, from Germany.

Also on Monday, the chief of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog gave his evaluation of the “steady” degree to which Iran has made progress in expanding its nuclear program:

Iran is making “steady progress” in expanding its nuclear program and international sanctions do not seem to be slowing it down, the U.N. nuclear agency chief told Reuters on Monday… “There is a steady increase of capacity and production (in Iran’s nuclear program),” Amano said in an interview. Asked if international punitive steps aimed at making Iran curb its atomic activity were slowing it down, he said: “I don’t think so … I don’t see any impact.”

Iran is known to be building infrastructure potentially useful for building both uranium- and plutonium-based nuclear weapons. Tehran has recently installed next-generation centrifuges in its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, deepening analyst concerns that Iran will be capable of sneaking across the nuclear finish line before the West is able to detect and intervene in the decision. Iranian scientists have also recently announced that they intend to bring online their heavy-water reactor at Arak, positioning Iran to pursue a plutonium-based bomb.

[Photo: arminkaza / Youtube]

In Luxor the appointment of Adel Asaad Al-Khayat as the new governor inflamed residents. The local economy – and Egypt’s economy more generally – relies heavily on tourism. Khayat, in contrast, is known for killing tourists:

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has appointed a member of the hardline Islamist group Gamaa Islamiya to the governorship of Luxor – a tourist city in which militants associated with the group killed 58 tourists in 1997… Members of the tourism industry are worried about the impact of the new governor both because of his ties to the former militant Gamaa Islamiya and because of the prospect of a hardline Islamist running the city and surrounding province.

“Is it unimaginable that those who plotted, participated or played any role in the massacre of Luxor, become the rulers even if they renounced and repented it,” said Tharwat Agamy, the head of Luxor’s tourism chamber. He said that he along with others in the tourism industry, politicians and activists, they were considering chaining the doors of the governor’s building and sending him back to the airport.

Morsi’s appointment to govern the Nile Delta city of Tanta was also met with something less than approval:

Clashes have erupted between supporters and opponents of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood over the recent appointment of an Islamist governor in a northern city… The fighting broke out after opposition protesters chained up the gate to the new governor’s office in a symbolic rejection of his appointment. Brotherhood supporters, armed with homemade forearms, swords and knives, started shooting at the protesters to clear them away and let Gov. Ahmed el-Baylie into his office.

The dissatisfaction in the two cities comes at a times when the Muslim Brotherhood is increasingly distrusted across Egypt. Earlier this month, Egypt’s intellectual and artist communities protested at Cairo’s Ministry of Culture, demanding the removal of the Minister of Culture, Alaa Abdel-Aziz for “destroying national culture” after firing several key figures in Egypt’s cultural scene.

Earlier Tuesday, Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed Elbaradei told the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper that Morsi had threatened to “burn the country” if Elbaradei became prime minister. Elbaradei’s statements were read against deepening worries regarding the country’s political and economic paralysis, which has crippled the Egyptian economy and sent Morsi’s approval ratings to record lows. European auditors today criticized European Union aid allocated to Egypt, saying that the some 1 billion Euro in aid sent to Egypt since 2007 has “done little” to tackle Cairo’s “serious problems in the area of corruption.”

[Photo: CNN / Youtube]

The essay purports to reveal one of the most guarded dark secrets of the Hassan Feridun Rouhani, the newly elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1992, when Rouhani was studying for his second degree (MPhil) at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, his son committed suicide. Rouhani was then 44 years old. Though he went on with his studies and life, completing his PhD at the university in 1999, his friends admit that he has never fully recovered for the tragic loss.

In his essay and subsequently in a broadcast by the Europe-based Radio Farda titled “In Search of Lost Children,”  Nourizadeh published the strongly worded suicide note of the younger Rouhani. It was a Persian version of J’accuse aimed at the leading elite of the Islamic republic.

“I hate your government, your lies, your corruption, your religion, your double acts and your hypocrisy,” wrote the son “”I am ashamed to live in such environment where I’m forced to lie to my friends each day, telling them that my father isn’t part of all of this. Telling them my father loves this nation, whereas I believe this to be not true. It makes me sick seeing you, my father; kiss the hand of Khamenei.”

The father was among the first important disciples of Ayatollah Rohalla Khomeini, the founder and the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. He can be seen in a photo sitting next to Khomeini in the first row during a prayer at Khomeini’s “court” in Paris, from where he spread his sermons and messages to topple the Shah, then the royal ruler of Iran

After the Islamic revolution in 1979 Rouhani served under Khomeini and, subsequently, under the current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, at various capacities. He was a Member of Parliament (Majlis), deputy speaker of the house, and a member of the advisory board of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). After completing his thesis in 1999, “The Flexibility of Shariah (Islamic Law) with reference to the Iranian experience,” he was appointed the Secretary General of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the national security advisor to Khamenei.

The highlight of his 16 year term was his handling of the nuclear negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the P5+1 (USA, Russia, UK, China, France and Germany). For his sophisticated approach he was nicknamed “the Diplomat Sheikh” by the Iranian, Arabic, and western media. Rouhani has the distinction of being the sole clerical member of Iran’s nuclear team. He conducted the nuclear negotiations with smiles and a readiness for minor concessions – but with an iron-clad determination to continue with the program. He agreed and convinced his superiors for a temporary suspension of the uranium enrichment for 10 months to avoid having Iran referred to the UN Security Council.

After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected as president in 2005, Rouhani resigned from some positions but continued to be involved in public life. He ran a center for strategic studies and edited publication on foreign policy. During these years he published his memoirs, which described his role in nuclear negotiations. The book, titled, “National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy,” contains his reflections as the official in charge of Iran’s nuclear case and secretary of the. It gives an account of how decisions were made in Iran’s political system as well as the role of high-ranking institutions in the nuclear case and all stages of negotiations with the European countries along with the relevant documents.

“National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy,” which has been recently reprinted, is now a must read for every intelligence analyst and state official who wishes to know how Iran’s nuclear politics may be affected by the new president. In summary, it can be said that Iran will change its tone – it will be softer and more pleasant – but the music will remain the same.

[Photo: AlJazeeraEnglish / YouTube]

Though he had once called for the execution of pro-democracy protesters, Rouhani was nonetheless left as the least radical option for reform-minded voters, and his election has generated hope in some quarters that he might be able to facilitate talks with the West. A Wall Street Journal analysis published this morning, however, emphasizes that any change in Iran’s posture “would require a shift by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”

The Islamic Republic’s overarching policies on matters such as its nuclear program, relations with the U.S. and its support of Syria’s regime are decided above the president’s level. Mr. Khamenei and his close circle of advisers typically decide the direction of these policies, and the president executes them.

The Supreme Leader had already explicitly forbidden the eventual winner from making concessions to the West, and the WSJ adds that “Mr. Khamenei has said over the past year that Iran would gain nothing by normalizing relations with the U.S.”

The utility of negotiations conducted by Rouhani is also being subjected to increasing scrutiny. Canadian MP Irwin Cotler gestured toward Rouhani’s boasts that he had used negotiations in order to provide the regime diplomatic space for expanding its nuclear program, emphasizing that “Ro[u]hani had patented the strategy of using negotiations – or negotiations about negotiations – as a cover for the uranium enrichment program.”

However, Rohani is the same person who struck a conciliatory posture as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, under another reformist president, Mohammed Khatami, while presiding over the secret advance of the nuclear program. Rohani was the one who boasted that, even when Iran had suspended uranium enrichment, it was able to make its greatest nuclear advances, saying, “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the facility in Isfahan,” a crucial nuclear site. “In fact, by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work in Isfahan.”

[Photo: AlJazeeraEnglish / Youtube]

The semiofficial Anatolian news agency said 84 people were arrested in the sweeps aimed at “members of terror organizations who destroyed public property, incited the public and attacked the police.” The names of the detainees, or the specific charges against them, were not released.

Lawyers for the detainees said they believed the total number of protesters in custody has now reached at least 176 people, and that the vast majority of the arrests were on charges of illegal gathering and had nothing to do with terrorism.

Initial media reports indicated the raids targeted left-wing groups. The arrests follow an announcement Monday by Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler that Ankara was preparing new regulations to police social media outlets for those “inciting people or coordinating and directing events that would cause social incidents or endanger material and physical public safety through manipulative, false news.” Earlier this month, dozens of people were arrested for speaking out against the government via social media, which Erdogan at the time referred to as “the worst menace to society.”

[Photo: EmreileHerTelden / Youtube]