Egypt needs to completely reorganize its political system, but the Egyptian ‘Google generation’ is not going to be part of solution, as the armed forces are back in power just like in post-Mubarak times, journalist Pepe Escobar told RT.
RT:Now we are having two rival camps riling across Egypt today. Where is this situation heading? Is it too early to talk about the dangerous prospects of the civil standoff?
Pepe Escobar: Its [Egypt’s] “ungovernability” is to the
limit, in fact. The basic is that Egypt cannot feed itself. They
have an annual deficit of over $20 billion. Before that we had
the Emir of Qatar writing the checks, now we are going to have
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates writing the checks. If they need
money from the IMF it’s going to be another $2 to $3 billion max.
We should have been negotiating for almost a year, it’s not
enough. Everything is going to explode all over again in three,
four, five, six months, before the end of the year, in fact.
What we are seeing now is nothing compared to what is going to happen in six months’ time. We still have the same problems. The Muslim Brotherhood was neo-liberal economically. This new government is going to be neo liberal as well. You have to completely reorganize the Egyptian system upside down. It’s impossible, because they cannot feed themselves, they cannot earn money from anything, they don’t produce anything that the rest of the world wants to buy, except of selling their tourist assets. There are no tourists going back to Egypt, especially now, after the coup, that is not a coup, according to the Obama administration. So it’s a dead end.
RT:What should be done to avoid the worst case scenario?
PE: The worst case scenario was put in movement after this
coup, which was not a coup. We can see the coup as a pre-emptive
military coup. In fact, the Supreme Council of the armed forces
is back in power just as it were in the immediate post-Mubarak
time. So we have the old system again, these people who have been
controlling Egypt for the past sixty years. They don’t have new
ideas. The people who have new ideas would be the Egyptian
“Google Generation”. Some of them are leftist, of course, but
they aren’t going to be part of the solution, they are not going
to be offering their solutions for the people who will be
governing Egypt from now on, which is the same old gang.
RT:What's ahead for Morsi? We see allegations popping out that he has escaped from prison two years ago with the help of Hamas.
PE: Not only in Egypt but also in Syria the popularity of
Hamas is not going very well. A lot of people say that Hamas
betrayed Syria because of Qatar. Khaled Mashel, by the way who is
in Doha, is very friendly with the Emir of Qatar. A lot of people
in the Middle East are repulsed by that. As for the Muslim
Brotherhood, they are trying to reorganize their forces. They see
it as a setback, the set back is not only going to be in Egypt.
It’s going to transfer to Syria, to the West, especially to the
US. Also the Saudis they are thinking: “We don’t want a Muslim
Brotherhood post Assad environment, if ever we get to that
place.” So they are going to be marginalizing Syria as well.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.