Mubarak meets new cabinet ministers

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163693.html

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has held a ministerial meeting with members of his new cabinet as millions of demonstrators pour into the streets across the country for the 12th consecutive day.

The meeting was attended by Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq as well as the central bank governor and the ministers of petroleum, social solidarity, trade and industry, and finance, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.

It was the president's first meeting with the ministers after he ordered the dismissal of the previous government last week in a frantic bid to dampen massive protests in the North African country.

Earlier on Saturday, unknown attackers blew up an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Israel near the Gaza Strip amid a growing sense of uncertainty over the identities of the perpetrators of the attack.

The attackers used explosives on the stretch of the pipeline running through the town of Lihfen in the Sheikh Zuwayed area of the Sinai Peninsula near the Gaza Strip, officials said.

"The state TV has been describing it as a terrorist attack, and the authorities have switched off the source of the gas supply and the things now are under control…We've been told that there was no major damage to the pipeline itself, but this would play into to the hands of the government and its talk of fear, looting, violence, and chaos if Hosni Mubarak goes," the correspondent stated.

Meanwhile, protests in troubled Egypt continued for the 12th consecutive day on Saturday with millions of demonstrators marching on a number of cities in the crisis-hit country.

Several Egyptian cities, including the capital Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez, have been the scene of massive protests in the past 11 days, as millions of people spilled out into the streets, calling for an immediate end to Mubarak's three-decade US-backed rule.

"In Tahrir (Liberation) Square people are now gathering again for another day of protest and there were also reports that the pro-Hosni Mubarak forces are going to show up," the corresponded added.

Meanwhile, some analysts have cast a shadow of doubt on the motives behind the gas pipeline explosion, saying that contrary to government officials' claims, the incident may not be the work of foreigners.

"Regardless of who made it, who made such (an) explosion to the gas pipeline near El-Arish, I think Israel would not see it friendly with such (an) explosion there for two reasons: one (is) because Israel imports gas from Egypt, secondly because most of the Egyptian Natural Gas Company's stocks are sold to -- or are owned by -- Israelis," said journalist Tahsin al-Halabi in an interview with Press TV.

He further noted that most high-ranking ex-Mossad officers, such as Yosef Maiman, who owns about 25 perent of the national Egyptian gas company through his colleague and ally, Hussein Salem, who is close to Mubarak, are also among those who own the biggest chunk of shares in Egyptian gas companies.

Hussein Salem, is an Egyptian partner of Israeli businessman Maiman in the East Mediterranean Gas company (EMG), which has a long-term agreement to supply natural gas to Israel.

In January, Salem, who owns 28 percent of EMG, which has supplied gas to Israel since June 2008, was caught in Dubai with $500 million in cash in his possession.