Egyptian Chronicles: An EC interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery.

Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery is a retired Egyptian Ambassador since 1995 who took the stand to sue the Egyptian government and the

ministry of petroleum for exporting the natural gas to Israel.Ambassador Youssery joined the foreign ministry since 1957.I made a quick online interview with him. I asked him about several issues not only the exportation of gas to Israel and he kindly answered them despite his time. I tried to cover several important current issues in Egypt as I found we could have benefit from his long legal expertise. For your information Ambassador Ibrahim headed the Egyptian Government committee for the revision of bilateral and multilateral treaties from 1987 to 1990 and he was the Deputy chief of the Egyptian delegation in the negotiation concerning the execution of the Taba award. He got several books in politics and international laws and appeared in several TV channels and newspapers inside and outside Egypt.
The issues that I covered in the Egyptian Chronicles interview are : The exportation of natural as to Israel, The POWs Case, The Salam 98 Ferry case and The Um Rashrash case.

The exportation of natural gas to Israel

Some of you may have known that Egypt started this year to export natural gas to Israel in very low prices despite the public refusal through a company owned by famous business man and former pilot Hussein Salam.Salam is said to be a close friend to Mubarak SR.
EC: Ambassador Ibrahim you took the stand against the Egyptian government for exporting our natural gas to Israel, why?? The western reader may not understand all that anger??
IY: Exporting gas in general is detrimental to our economy and a betrayal to the next generations, simply because we do not have that much to export, and our gas reserve is going to dry in 15 years.
If we are talking about a matter of vital importance to the people of Egypt, there will be no place to care about the anger of the west especially because they are stealing our petrol and gas with an economic price for decades.
EC : Is not exporting the natural gas without the people’ permission and approval through the Parliament considered illegal??
IY : Sure, exporting the natural gas without the people’s permission and approval through the Parliament is absolutely illegal.
EC: As a law expert can we stop the exportation of natural gas to Israel through the law??
IY : Legally we can stop that through the court, but with two ifs, if the court is faire, and if the government accepts the verdict. We have no other way because the government rejected all interventions in the parliament.
EC :This is a government that does not respect any court’s orders and the example is many, how can we make it respect the court’s order if it was in our side??
IY: As I told you, we have no alternative, and it would be very bad if we remained silent. Yes we can make them respect the verdict by popular pressure.

The POWs Case

The Egyptian POWs case is one of the most neglected and also most important cases in Egypt from the regime’s side despite the fact the international laws are all in our side.
EC : The Egyptian POWs case is from the most important neglected cases in Egypt, as international law expert; can we go to the IJC or the ICC to sue Israel as citizens not as a state??
IY: We can peruse this matter by bringing it to international courts. There are some technical difficulties to engage the ICC, but the IJC has no jurisdiction here. I agree fully that the Egyptian POWs case is one of the most important neglected cases in Egypt. But we can always engage the Israeli criminals before any court (Pinochet , Mengistu, Sharon cases)
EC : Do we need the approval of the Egyptian state??
IY : We do not need the approval of the Egyptian state.
EC : Can the ICC investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State??
IY : Yes the ICC can investigate it without the approval of the Egyptian State
EC: If we go there, are the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai are enough to support our case and open an international investigation for War crimes, especially that there are some Israelis who confirmed our stories??
IY : Yes, the court can accept the testimonies of the people of Sinai and the ex-POWs who witnessed the war crimes against our soldiers and officers plus the mass graves in Al Arish and across the rest of Sinai
EC: Why do you think the Egyptian government refuse to take it seriously despite it is a win case??
IY : The Egyptian government refuses to take it seriously despite it is a win case, because they don’t care a bit about people and they can not stand any American pressure.

The Salam Ferry Case

After the disappointing shocking verdict last week Egyptians are thinking of suing Mamdouh Ismail abroad.
EC: Can the victims of Salam Ferry 98 sue Mamdouh Ismail in London??
IY : Yes the victims of Salam Ferry 98 sue Mamdouh Ismail in London before British courts. The House of Lords had confirmed that in the Pinochet case.

The Um Rashrash Case:

Um Rashrash , this is little village between Egypt and Israel is still causing a lot of buzz whether it is an Egyptian or not and whether we can have it back or not
EC : Your Excellency, you were from the members of Egyptian law panel during the Taba issue and I was wondering about the legal situation of Um El-Rashrash, the occupied land since 1949, some say that it was Egyptian, some say that there was under the Egyptian Rule than the Othman Rule and so we do not have any right in it, so do we have a right in claiming it??
IY: The legal situation of Um El-Rashrash, Is that it is an Egyptian land taken by aggression during the truce period, but we did not fight for it. We can claim it only by force not by law, and so we can we have it back after all those years only by force.
This is my quick interview with Ambassador Ibrahim Youssery ,I really thank him for giving me such time to answer my so many question in so many things.