CAIRO: Safwat El-Sherif, Shoura Council speaker and secretary-general of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), lauded the relationship between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries in an interview with Al Arabiya channel on Tuesday. “Aid and cooperation on projects tie us to the Nile Basin countries, however, there is some [external] manipulation but such is the case with politics,” he said. El-Sherif said that Egypt won't lose the ability to negotiate a resolution with Nile Basin countries that will preserve its historical rights while meeting their demands and respecting their right to develop. He also tackled other pressing issues such as the coming presidential elections, saying that Egypt has a lot of leading personalities that are eligible to run for presidency in line with the constitution. Speaking about Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's comments, in which he expressed his wish for President Hosni Mubarak to run for another term, El-Sherif said, “Mubarak is a legend and there is no replacement for his political experience, he is the leader of this country and all the party is with him.” Former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei had refused to apply for establishing a political party, saying that the ruling party is both the rival and judge at the same time due to El-Sherif's chairmanship of the political affairs committee. On the other hand, El-Sherif stressed that circumstances pushed him to be NDP's secretary-general and the speaker of Shoura Council, adding that things might change in the next round, since the head of the Shoura Council is always the head of the ruling party, be it the NDP, the Wafd or Tagammu. He also addressed recent protests that have taken place in front of the Shoura Council and the People's Assembly, saying it is in line with democracy and freedom of expression, and that protestors are peaceful people holding their demands on placards. As for extending the emergency law, El-Sherif confirmed that the law is only applicable to terrorism and drug trafficking, and that all the detainees that were not proven guilty are going to be released.
