On announcing that it was terminating its contract to supply gas to Israel on Sunday, Egypt's Natural Gas holding company immediately claimed that the decision had been made on a purely commercial basis.

However, the move was pounced upon by the country's presidential candidates as yet another opportunity to burnish their national and anti-Israel credentials.

For over a hundred miles between the heavily guarded Suez Canal Bridge and the main town in northern Sinai, El Arish, the road is deserted at night. No-one is stopping cars or checking documents at the roadblocks and the guard posts are empty.

Only on the final approach to El Arish can the first signs of a military build-up be seen.

One cannot but marvel at the deft political manoeuvring of Egypt's Islamists over the past year, as they distanced themselves from violence on the ground against their liberal opponents while orchestrating an action replay of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Israeli politicians have remained tight-lipped on what it would mean for the country if Egypt were to have a leader from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Despite earlier pledges not to field a candidate for the Egyptian presidency, the Islamist party – banned under the leadership of Hosni Mubarak – has announced that its deputy leader will be seeking the role.

The first cousin of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has welcomed the possibility of a future democratic Syria making peace with Israel.

Ribal al-Assad, 36, whose father is the exiled former vice-president Rifaat al-Assad, said in an interview with the JC that most Syrians were interested primarily in peace and prosperity.

The new, democratically elected Egyptian Parliament convened for the first time on Monday. Seventy per cent of the MPs are members of Islamist parties.

But disputes were already apparent at the swearing-in ceremony of the 508 MPs. Many of the Islamists added statements of allegiance to Islam to their oaths, while some members of liberal parties referred to the ethos of the revolution.