Media Attacks on Cairo Continue

Pro-government media in Syria this week continued to cast doubt on the Egyptian authorities’ claim to have they foiled an attack by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.



Earlier this month, officials in Cairo announced that a cell of 49 men with links to the Lebanese group had been planning attacks in Egypt. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah denied the allegation.



An April 14 opinion article by writer Nizar Sallom in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said the plot allegations amounted to nothing more than “political delirium”.



“Egypt wrongly views Nasrallah and Hezbollah through the misguided eyes of the Americans and Israelis,” he argued.



On April 16, columnist Zaher al-Aridi wrote an opinion piece in the same paper in which he accused Egypt of deliberately making the claim in order to create friction in the region.



In a comment piece in the newspaper of the Syrian Communist Party, writer Obada Bozo blasted President Hosni Mubarak and other Egyptian leaders. He urged ordinary people in that country to rise up and demand new leadership.