Speakers at an international workshop termed the military support and domestic motivation as the key ingredients for successful uprisings. They were speaking at an international workshop on "European Union (EU) and the Current Situation in the Middle East", which was jointly organised by the Area Study Centre for Europe (ASCE) of Karachi University and the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad held at ASCE here on Thursday.
The speakers were Thomas Prenzel, department of political science of university of Rostock, Germany, Gerald Dribner, freelancer journalist reporting on the Middle East, Alexandria Egypt and Professor Dr Mohamamd El-Sayed Selim, department of political science of Cairo university. Thomas, who highlighted the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the EU through his presentation, said the EU should increase its financial assistance to the revolts to protect the human rights in Middle East.
Gerald, who described the change and transformation in Egypt and its implications for the EU, opined that the Egypt revolution is now going in a desultory fashion, due to lack of political will and discussions. Furthermore, he said that some ideologies are striving to capitalise the said revolution movements in its favour. He said the people of Egypt are now expressing apprehension that the country could be turned to secular state. Therefore, all discussions in the country are now roaming around Article 2, which tells to implement Islamic rules in the state.
Later, Dr Selim said that although the EU and United State were keen to boost relations with Egypt, the funding in this regard was not aimed at protecting human rights but to abolishing the capital punishment in the country. He said the Iranian economy had also been affected by the uprising in Egypt. Hence the Iranian government seems to be keen to erect diplomatic relations with the new regime, which was not possible in Mubarak reign because of American influence. Moreover, he said the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt could only be successful because of military support and domestic motivation. A large number of students attended the workshop.