WASHINGTON - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, after he wiped out the spirit of the Arab Spring in his country, has begun to declare that he does not support the revolutions, the Washington Times reported.
In a report published on Friday, the newspaper reported that Sisi had praised only two years ago the Egyptian public that ignited the 2011 uprising that ousted deposed President Hosni Mubarak, describing it as reviving "noble principles" and founded a "new Egypt".
But he returned this month to explain that he would no longer pretend to support the Arab Spring revolutions and the promise of democracy and the right to oppose the government, according to the American newspaper.
They opened the gates of hell
"The young activists who instigated the 2011 uprising were good intentions but opened the gates of hell," the Washington Times reported in its report on Sisi before the World Youth Forum held recently in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
She also pointed out that the people who seek change do not realize the vacuum that will result from this and will seek "the bad guys alone" to fill it, noting that most observers of the Egyptian affairs were not surprised by those statements.
Since Sisi took power in 2014 after ousting President-elect Mohamed Morsi, Egypt has experienced a "slow deterioration" in civil rights that goes beyond old repressive practices, the newspaper said, citing unnamed critics.
Increased repression
However, as the phenomenon of "terrorism" grew, the Egyptian leadership carried out strict measures against civil society organizations, which gradually accelerated over the past year.
International monitoring groups - Amnesty International - denounced the campaign of arrests of tens of thousands of Egyptians, including prominent activists such as lawyer Huda Abdel Moneim.
"There is no significance in the economic program of the government," said Hala Fouda, secretary of human rights and freedoms at the Egyptian Social Democratic Party. "The priorities are right.
The report referred to the government's attempts to intimidate the remaining independent media by enacting laws that limit their freedom.
At the end of the report, Sisi - who has close ties to Saudi Arabia - said that the global media coverage of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi played a "negative role" in the case.