Egypt

June 2008 | Risk Summary

At the time of going to press, Egypt was planning to open the Rafah border with Gaza for a period of 48 hours for 'humanitarian reasons'. This is a risky policy for the government. It is already concerned about the influence of Hamas on its own population, and according to Israel, it pledged not to open the crossing until progress had been made towards the release of kidnapped Israeli solider Gilad Shalit. However, the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza is a very emotive issue domestically in Egypt, and the government has suffered from its perceived failure to do anything

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