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Kuwait’s security announced that they arrested over 20 Egyptians and deported to back to their country, for allegedly organizing a gathering to express support for Mohammed El Baradei to run for the presidency of Egypt.
The arrests came after the group posted a notice on the Internet about the gathering, the security source said. The deportees arrived at Cairo airport later in the day, but there were conflicting accounts of the number of dissidents who returned. An airport official said only four had arrived so far, and they left the airport inconspicuously. George Ishak, a spokesman for El Baradei's group the National Association for Change, said 17 had arrived. He said 34 Egyptian supporters of El Baradei were arrested in Kuwait.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition movement, called the arrests "an insult". "The Kuwaiti government has no right to detain these men or to interfere in the affairs of the Egyptian citizens," Hamdi Hassan, an MP affiliated with the banned Islamist group, said in a statement. Ishak also condemned the deportations and said his group requested a meeting with Kuwait's ambassador to Egypt.
El Baradei, 67, has emerged as Egypt's most high profile pro-reform leader after retiring from the International Atomic Energy Agency last year. The Nobel laureate has said he would run for president if constitutional restrictions on independent nominations in next year's presidential elections were changed.
April 10, 2010
Analysis and Forecast: Increasing Risk
The reaction by the Kuwaiti government to the El Baradei supporters carries with it multiple risks for Kuwait, internal and external, both on the short and long-terms.
The expulsion will likely draw criticism from Muslim-brotherhood affiliated MP’s and increase the potential for opening up a further front in the rapidly rising tension between the parliament and government. It will also likely cause significant unrest amongst the Egyptian expatriate population in Kuwait, who form about 15% of the total population.
The action will also undermine relations between Kuwait and El Baradei supporters. The Egyptian president is increasingly unpopular and although there are no reliable estimates for Mubarak’s popularity, a fair election may present a significant chance for El Baradei to win. If this happens, whether by free elections in Egypt in 2011 or through a popular uprising, the long term relations between a future non-Mubarak government and Kuwait will likely be undermined. Relations with Egypt, the Arab’s world largest country, are very important to Kuwait, both on a strategic level as well as due to the large expatriate communities in both countries. By siding clearly against El Baradei, Kuwait has taken a gamble in its foreign relations.
The figure below shows the distribution of the Kuwaiti population, including the large Egyptian community:
