Egypt's Shiites apprehensive as Hezbollah tensions mount

Cairo: When the Egyptian authorities announced earlier this month smashing a ring with alleged links to the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, Ahmad Al Nafees, an Egyptian Muslim Shiite, felt concerned for his tiny minority in this country the Arab world's biggest Muslim Sunni country.

"The tradition of recent years has been that strains between Egypt one the one hand and Iran or Hezbollah (both Shiites) on the other reflect badly on the Egyptian Shiites," said Al Nafees. "For no good reason, the Egyptian Shiites' loyalty is questioned," he added in an interview.

The Egyptian authorities are questioning scores of Egyptian, Palestinian, Sudanese and Lebanese nationals on charges of being assigned by Hezbollah to carry out terror attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.

They also face charges of espionage. If convicted, they face punishment of imprisonment for life, according to legal experts.

Tensions between Egypt and Hezbollah have been spiralling since last January when the latter accused the government of President Hosni Mubarak of complicity in Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Palestinian territory, which left more than 1,300 dead.

Spreading Shiism is among the charges levelled against the alleged Hezbollah operatives.

"If the Egyptian law bans promoting the Shiite ideology, why then is the Egyptian government contacting the Shiites to prod them to denounce Hezbollah in an official statement?" said Al Nafees, who admits that his sect practice their beliefs freely.

There are no official figures about the numbers of Shiites in Egypt. They are, however, believed to account for 750,000 of this country's 80 million population.

Apart from the recent detention of Hezbollah's alleged agents, the Egyptian police have not cracked down on Shiites.

Al Nafees, who was arrested three times between 1978 and 1996, is still worried that the Egyptian authorities will associate his sect with Hezbollah or Iran. "Definitely, we are Egyptians and our loyalty is for Egypt."

Diplomatic ties between Egypt and Iran have been severed since 1979 after Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel. Recent attempts to improve the ties have fizzled out.

Egypt accuses Iran of using Hezbollah to promote an ambitious agenda to dominate the region.