Mahmoud Jibril won the Libyan election by dint of a power-sharing deal with the Muslim Brotherhood and the support of French and US intelligence. That deal is not expected to last long.

Saying “An Islamist flood threatens us all, the Russian president put before the Israeli prime minister propositions of a secret conduit through Moscow to Tehran and help for mending Turkish-Israeli relations in return for a Russian stake in Mediterranean oil.

President Morsi’s respect for the peace treaty with Israel and respect for minority and religious rights will determine whether he is received at the White House, gains the $1.5 bn US aid package, and its help in releasing funds to buy food for the population.

The Brotherhood is snatching the main cabinet posts including prime minister from President Morsi’s grasp and conniving against him with the Supreme Military Council. The new president is trying to break free of its shackles.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt will have pushed aside Iran and energy as top issues when Monday, June 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin on a short visit to Israel meets Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. On this at least they have common ground:  The Muslim Brotherhood governments rolling out along Middle East shores with US encouragement – Libya, last year; Egypt, yesterday; and Syria, tomorrow – are seen as a threat to regional stability rivaling even the menace of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has achieved the goal set at its foundation 84 years ago: Its candidate Muhammed Morsi was declared Sunday afternoon, June 24, president of Egypt, with a 51.73 percent win over Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister under the ousted Hosni Mubarak. Jubilant Brotherhood supporters massed in Tahrir Square are preparing to fight the Supreme Military Council to transfer the sweeping powers assumed by the generals to the president and back him in Egypt’s transformation into an Islamic republic akin to Iran.

Field Marshal Tantawi and presidential contestant Ahmed Shafiq both made tracks to Riyadh this week for succor and support against the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of power in Cairo. Both were also going against US plans for supporting that takeover.

With no clear winner, Egypt is falling into two ...

The combination of lawless Sinai under the control of Bedouin bands, al Qaeda and Salafist militias and Cairo ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood is the recipe for strife between Israel and Egypt.

Islamist candidate Muhammad Mursi did not wait for the ballots to be counted before proclaiming himself President of Egypt. Shafiq’s protest that final results were not in was drowned out by street celebrations preparing the masses to confirm the Brotherhood win. The Netanyahu government did not oppose Obama’s policy of bringing Muslims to power through the ballot box and now faces Moslem adversaries from a strategic pit. To recover its deterrent effectiveness, Israel must dismantle Iran’s nuclear program by force.

Egypt’s transitional military government assumes legislative powers after the constitutional court Thursday, June 14, dissolved parliament because one-third of its seats were gained illegally in an election which handed two Islamist parties a majority. Egyptians found they face a new general election two days before they vote in the presidential runoff.  The court also ruled that Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, would stay in the presidential race.

The Brotherhood's Islamist militias, which first put in an appearance in Egypt's presidential election campaign last month to disrupt Ahmed Shafiq's rallies, quickly took on a national character. They then formed into hierarchical structures on the lines of the paramilitary militias which surfaced in the early years of Iran’s Shiite revolution in the early 1980s and evolved into Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The Muslim Brotherhood lost substantial ground between Egypt’s general and presidential elections round one. The emergence of the two frontrunners, the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and former PM Ahmed Shafiq, has cast the original revolutionaries and pro-democracy elements onto the sidelines.

Results of the final round of the presidential vote in Egypt depends on two things: The candidates’ ability to organize their campaigns and funding from the Arab world and American sources.

Monday, April 24, the Obama administration stepped in to damp down the military frictions developing between Jerusalem and Cairo, fanned further this week by a dispute over the suspension of Egyptian gas to Israel. Earlier that day, Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi said: “If anyone comes near Egypt’s border, we will break their leg.” Egyptian Islamists and Bedouin groups have since announced they would mark Israel’s Independence Day Thursday with a mass assault on the Sinai memorials of Israel’s fallen soldiers.

General Omar Suleiman was gulled into throwing his hat in the presidential ring by two generals who needed a fig leaf for disqualifying the two Islamist contenders for the presidency.

Omar Suleiman’s retirement from Egypt’s presidential race leaves the stage open to the Muslim Brotherhood and possible one other Islamist contender. Frontrunner Khairat El-Shater is offering his Salafist rivals perks for standing down. The Egyptian street will pick the winner.

Former Egyptian intelligence strongman Gen. Omar Suleiman’s decision Thursday, April 5 to drop out of the race for president in the June election shocked Washington and Jerusalem and dashed their hopes of a figure capable of challenging Khairat El-Shater and halting or at least offsetting the Muslim Brotherhood’s monopoly of power in post-Mubarak Egypt. The Supreme Military Council ruling Egypt was told that Islamist power had become unstoppable after starting to penetrate the young army elite taking over in July, debkafile reports.

Egypt’s military rulers have been whittling down the Muslim-Brotherhood-dominated parliament’s powers and begun backing its secular, pro-democracy, liberal opponents who plan to revive Tahrir protests.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood secretly turned to mending its fences with Iran on the back of the Israeli-Palestinian clash over the Gaza Strip using Hamas as go-between. The Sunni Brotherhood, the dominant political force in post-Mubarak Egypt, decided two weeks ago to forge ties with Shiite Iran, causing a major upset for United States and Israeli ...

Russia has a comprehensive long-term plan to overtake - or at least match - America as a world superpower and it therefore extends a helping hand to any Middle East and Arab power, principally Syria and Iran, willing to defy Washington. Moscow is also betting on Bashar Assad winning the Syrian ...