Here's one for Egypt watchers: I put together a new page on the Current Situation in Egypt, where you can follow the latest developments on Egypt's transition, who is in power, and who the groups in the opposition are.
In other news, President Mohammed Morsi is keeping up the turbo start to his presidency. After retiring the most senior army commanders, he is now aiming to put Egypt back on the diplomatic map. Morsi is proposing to launch a new Middle Eastern diplomatic quarter, but one that neither Americans or Russians will be welcomed to join.
The proposed group would include Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, i.e. leading regional powers (with the exception of Israel), for the purpose of working out common strategies on regional crises, including Syria.
While Western-led initiatives have shunned Iran, this framework would put Tehran back at the table, and possibly facilitate dialogue between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two regional arch rivals (see the news story).
I suspect this is more of a publicity stunt to highlight Egypt's return to the game after years of splendid isolation under Mubarak, rather than an audacious attempt to rewrite the regional order (and the US role in it). But it does signal Egypt's new found confidence, as it inches away from complete dependence on Washington's umbrella.
We'll hear more about this when Morsi visits Tehran at the end of the month: the first ever trip by Egyptian president to Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Photo by Getty Images.
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