Surf Arab States

Arab States Weekly Review Aug 11th – 17th 2012

Egypt’s president Mohammed Morsi purged the upper ranks of the military by forcing Defence Minister Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi to retire. He was replaced by former intelligence chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Fighting intensified in Syria in its capital Damascus and second city Aleppo. Riyad Hijab, the former prime minister who had fled the country, said that President Bashar Assad’s regime was collapsing. A UN investigation into the Houla massacre in May found that war crimes had been committed by both government and opposition forces.