CAIRO (MEMO) – The Egyptian government is thought to be taking extra precautions to prevent an uprising as the economic crisis continues to spiral.
Eighty percent of Egypt’s wheat imports are from Ukraine and Russia. The Ukraine conflict has pushed food prices up in a country that has lived for years through austerity measures and soaring living costs.
Egypt recently turned to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the third loan in six years, while one third of the population lives below the poverty line.
Sources have told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Egyptian security forces have agreed that the government must not make uncalculated decisions which could lead to an uprising on the streets.
The General Intelligence and National Security agencies have classified the current conditions as “dangerous and unstable.”
Members of the press told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that they have been asked to focus on the fact that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called for a national political dialogue.
For the first time since 2014 the Egyptian president called for a political dialogue among the country’s political parties that includes opposition members, but not the Muslim Brotherhood.
On Monday, it was reported that Egypt appears to have postponed carrying out executions to quell international pressure to reform as it tries to maintain its grip over the country.
Meanwhile, the Cairo Criminal Court has postponed a session to consider renewing the detention of human rights activists, Hoda Abdel Moneim, Aisha Khairat Al-Shater and her husband, lawyer Abu Huraira, to 13 June.
Activists said the court also refused to allow the detainees’ families to approach them.
“We were not allowed to see my mother or even approach her,” the Women Against the Coup movement quoted Fadwa Khaled, Hoda Abdel Moneim’s daughter, as saying.