EU diplomats holding talks on Egypt crisis

EU diplomats are holding talks in Brussels on the situation in Egypt ahead of an expected emergency meeting of foreign ministers later this week.

In a joint statement yesterday, the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council condemned the military crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and called on all sides to exercise restraint.

Under an agreement signed last November, the European Union pledged €5 billion in loans and grants to the Egyptian government and to civil society.

With the international community apparently powerless to influence events in Egypt, the EU is anxious to use what leverage it has to prevent a further escalation in violence.

Last year's agreement was an attempt to support the momentum towards the democratic reforms heralded by the Arab Spring.

As such, the funding was conditional on those reforms being implemented by the then government, which was being run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

This year, €1 billion was available to Egypt, but because none of the conditions relating to democratic reforms were met, very little of that money has been released.

Because of that it is not clear exactly what further leverage foreign ministers might be able to exert.

Europe is Egypt's biggest trading partner; already Germany has threatened to end arms exports and to suspend bilateral aid.

Ambush near north Sinai

At least 24 Egyptian policemen have been killed and three wounded in an ambush by Islamist militants near the north Sinai town of Rafah.

The policemen were on their way to their barracks in Rafah, near the border with Israel, when militants attacked them with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Attacks by Islamist militants in north Sinai region have intensified since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Mursi on 3 July.

At least 850 people, including 70 police and soldiers, have been killed in the past week in a crackdown on Mr Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, which says it renounced violence decades ago.

Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters have been arrested in recent days across Egypt in an effort to end weeks of protests, but the group has said it will not retreat and staged rallies in both Cairo and Alexandria yesterday.

Protest outside Egyptian embassy in Dublin

Over 80 people are now protesting outside the Egyptian Embassy in Ballsbridge in Dublin.

The group includes a number of teenagers who are friends of detained Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa.

Ibrahim's sister Nosayba has also been taking part in the protest, which is being held in support of her four siblings who have been detained in Egypt.

The demonstrators include members of the Egyptian Irish Anti-Coup Forum.

Omaima, 20, Fatima, 22, Somaia, 27 and their 17-year-old Ibrahim are the children of Hussein Halawa, who is Imam at Ireland's largest mosque in Clonskeagh in Dublin.

They were detained following a stand-off at the al-Fateh mosque in Cairo on Saturday.

A Turkish diplomat who met the four siblings has told the Department of Foreign Affairs they are "fine".

They are being held at the security forces headquarters next to Tora prison.

Minister of State Joe Costello said that information on the whereabouts of the siblings was conveyed to the Irish Ambassador Isolde Moylan by the Egyptian foreign ministry this morning.

It was initially believed that they were being detained in the prison.

Mr Costello said they were due to be taken to a prosecutor's office today.

A representative of the Government will be in attendance.

Mr Costello also said that despite it "not being the best thing" for Ireland and the EU to break off negotiations with Egypt in response to the current unrest, it was important to express their concern over violence in the country on both sides.

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