Egypt working to remove Hizbullah TV
Petitions submitted to Egyptian court asking to revoke al-Manar's national broadcasting license, accuses it of promoting sectarianism
In the latest round between pro-establishment forces and Hizbullah representatives in Egypt, a petition was submitted to an Egyptian court asking to revoke the license of the organization's television station - al-Manar, London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday.
The petition maintains that the Shiite-affiliated station recently began broadcasting false news reports about Egypt. Among these, al-Manar was said to have accused Egypt of collaborating with the United States, promoting Jewish interests and trying to "implement the Zionist agenda."
The broadcasts, provided by the Egyptian satellite service 'Nilesat', make al-Manar, along with hundreds of other Arab-language channels, available to millions in the country.
"This constitutes a national humiliation, creates confusion with our neighbors and sectarianism about different groups," the petition claimed.
On Saturday, the state-sponsored daily al-Ahran blamed al-Jazeera for collaborating with Arab sources attempting to "create chaos within Egypt to push forth a revolution."
"Al-Jazeera, as usual, abandoned neutrality and attempted to unify public opinion in Egypt and the Arab world, to stir up public opinion and grossly influence them with the claim that Egypt had tied ties with Israel and the US against Hamas."
In the report, it claimed that al-Jazeera, along with Hamas, Iran, Syria and Qatar, was part of a plot to aid the Muslim Brotherhood and a Hizbullah cell in Egypt to bring about a coup.
Three weeks prior, Egypt boycotted an Arab League summit in protest of similar coverage by al-Jazeera, whose headquarters are located in the summit's host nation of Qatar.
