Al Awa Lauds Qatar's support for arab spring uprisings

Mohamed Salim Al Awa, Egypt's Islamist thinker and a potential presidential candidate has said he would maintain strong relations with Qatar and other Arab countries if he won the presidential race. In an interview with QNA in Cairo, Al Awa lauded Qatar's support for Egypt's January 25 revolution and other Arab Spring uprisings. Egypt’s revolution has accomplished a considerable part of its legitimate demands but much remained to be done, he said. He said reforming the police apparatus should be one of the top priorities of the next government. The other priority he noted, should be rescuing the Egyptian economy. The biggest challenges facing Egypt, he said is uniting visions and cooperating for the sake of the progress of the country, not for the interest of individuals. The challenges are also represented in restoration of self-confidence to Egyptians and launching collective work through a comprehensive strategy to overcome accumulating problems, he said. Al Awa said fears from the victory of Islamists in the recent parliamentary elections are unfounded. Islamists have five years to test their performance, he noted. He also said Egypt under the Islamists will be a civil state. On the performance of the ruling Supreme Military Council, he said it made mistakes with no ill-intentions, but also scored successes. Al Awa explained that his presidential platform includes a radical program for economic reform, development of tourism and upgrading trade relations with other Arab countries, finding solutions to the problems of infrastructure and unemployment and advancing the wheel of production and finding jobs for youths. This, he noted, cannot be achieved without eradication of corruption. He said Egypt s peace agreement with Israel must be respected as long as the other side did likewise. (QNA)