UPDATED Egypt: Mubarak's Not-So-Secret Cancer?

UPDATE 27 July: President Mubarak, in a thank-you letter to the spiritual leader of the Israeli religious party Shas, has said he is in great shape and "fully recovered". Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had sent a "Get Well" card two weeks ago.



UPDATE 24 July: Ten days after officials said he would be his attendance at the African Union summit in Uganda would demonstrate his good health, President Mubarak has cancelled the trip. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif will now represent Cairo.

On Wednesday, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad had again dismissed reports that Mubarak was ill, saying staff were "out of breath" trying to keep up with his schedule.

UPDATE 19 July: The Mubarak cancer story has now made the pages of The Washington Times: "The 82-year-old Egyptian leader is thought by most Western intelligence agencies to be dying from terminal cancer affecting his stomach and pancreas."

UPDATE 13 July: As-Safir reports that Mubarak is going to Germany this week for another round of medical treatment. The Egyptian President had been scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in advance of Saturday's arrival by US envoy George Mitchell.

UPDATE 1600 GMT: A twist in the tale....

The Jerusalem Post, where we first saw the story this morning, has now removed any reference to cancer and posted the headline, "Mubarak Has Fallen Ill". The original Al-Quds al-Arabi story does appear to refer to medical tests in relation to a tumour.

EA has had reliable reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is suffering from cancer, raising questions over the country's political future. Egyptian authorities have been keen to keep the news from emerging, but the wall started to crumble when Mubarak had treatment in Germany --- the ostensible reason was gall-bladder surgery --- in March.

Now the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi has brought out the story. Mubarak has been in Paris, nominally to meet French President Sarkozy and Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri, but the newspaper says he has also undergone a round of medical tests.

Turkey-Israel Mystery: A Secret Meeting with Ankara (Followed by an Israeli Apology?)

The story started to emerge on Wednesday afternoon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly "trying to quietly mend fences with Turkey", had sent Minister of Industry Benjamin Ben-Eliezer on a secret trip (initally said to be in Ankara, then Zurich, and then confirmed as Brussels) to meet Turkish Foreign Ahmet Davutoglu.

The office of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was horrified:

Turkey Video Special: Prime Minister Erdogan’s 50 Minutes on US Television (29 June)

The foreign minister did not know about the meeting. He considers it a serious matter that the meeting took place without the Foreign Ministry being informed. It is a violation of all normal procedures. It undermines the trust between the foreign minister and the prime minister. The foreign minister intends to clarify the incident.

Reports soon emerged that it was Lieberman who leaked the news of the Ben-Eliezer mission to journalists. Netanyahu's office issued a statement confirming the meeting, without naming the Turkish participant, and explaining that it was initiated by the Turks and was "unofficial".  (Lieberman had not been informed beforehand because of a "technical reason".) Turkish officials insisted that the "request came from the Israeli side".

By Thursday, The Jerusalem Post was headlining, "Turkey: Secret Meeting Unsuccessful". The Turks had supposedly asked for an apology for the 31 May raid on the Freedom Flotilla, a UN inquiry into the incident, payment of compensation, and an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The Post may have written too soon, however. Turkish media are now claiming:

Davutoglu threatened that Israel-Turkey relations may worsen, with Turkey closing its airspace to commerical flights, as well as military ones, should Israel fail to apologize. Ben-Eliezer reportedly answered that Israel is ready to apologize, and even pay the families of those inured in the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara.

A "Turkish diplomatic source" said, "There will be a second meeting if the Israeli side takes a step toward [meeting] our demands.”