Egyptians, Saudis Blamed for Gaza Situation

Syria Media Report, 19-Dec-08

Friday, 19 December, 2008

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Egyptians, Saudis Blamed for Gaza Situation

Syria Media Report, 19-Dec-08

The pro-government website Syria News has accused Egypt and Saudi Arabia of bearing as much responsibility as Israel for the situation in Gaza.

In a piece published on December 15, the website criticised the Egyptian government for the continued closure of the border with the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptians have kept the border more or less closed since the Hamas movement seized control of the territory from forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June 2005.

Syria News claimed that the failure of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia to back Hamas revealed that they really supported the United States and Israel.

Meanwhile, the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan used two side-by-side photographs to convey similar sentiments the following day. One picture, captioned “the moderate leaders”, showed Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz with President George Bush, while the other showed the American president ducking after an Iraqi reporter hurled a shoe at him earlier this week; this was captioned “the resistance people.”

Syrian relations with Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been tense in recent years.

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