Egypt's Sisi says false rumors hand threat to Arab countries | world

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Sunday that Arab countries, including Egypt, have been vulnerable to a barrage of rumors at spreading instability.

Addressing a Military Academy graduation ceremony in Cairo, Sisi said that his government had detected 21,000 false rumors over a period of three months.

Sisi, who was elected president after he led the army in ousting Mohamed Mursi following the protests against the Islamist president's one year in office, sees himself as trying to rebuild Egypt following years of turmoil that began in 2011.

" The real danger is blowing up countries from within. Rumors, acts of terrorism, loss of hope and feeling of frustration, all these work in a large network of targets, only one objective, and that is to move people to their country, "Sisi said, speaking in Arabic.

"Destroying our countries will not come unless it came from within. We must be alert and pay attention to what is being done in secret, "he added," without naming any party.

He said that while he understood the economic hardships that ordinary Egyptians are enduring due to economic reforms, nothing justifies "causing chaos and destroying the state".

Sisi 's government has been criticized by the Egyptian government over the raising of fuel, electricity and transportation.

Critics accuse Sisi's government of presiding over the most serious crackdown on dissent since 2011, most of them Islamists but also including liberals who opposed his policies.

Supporters say Sisi's policies were necessary to bring stability to the most populous country in the Arab world and save it from the anarchy and destruction witnessed by other Arab countries such as Syria and Libya.

Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, President of the Army of the United States, who is also known to the army. the late presidents Mohammed Naguib, Abdel Nbader Gamal and Anwar Sadat.

Sisi also decorated Youssef Siddiq, one of the Free Officers who fell out of favor with the Revolutionary Command Council in 1952 until he died in 1975, with the Nile Medal, the country's highest honor.

"My dad had no medals or any decorations. This is the first medal to be in the history of Youssef Siddiq, "Siddiq's daughter, Laila, who received the medal, told Reuters.

"What happened today was an act of justice to Youssef Siqqiq and his history, which had been deliberately suppressed," she added.