The American University in Cairo has said that the lecture by prominent Egyptian writer and journalist Mohammed Hassanein Haikal, which was supposed to be held at the AUC's Tahrir Square campus on Saturday 24 November, will be held at a later date in December.

Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, Dean of the School of Public Affairs at AUC which is organising the event, said that the postponement of the lecture is due to the mass protests in Tahrir Square and the ongoing clashes between protesters and Central Security Forces (CSF) in the surrounding streets.

Haikal was supposed to deliver a lecture entitled 'To where?' to comment on the ongoing political process and transitional period in Egypt.

"We took this decision in order to wait until there are convenient circumstances which will allow us to organise such an important event, and to allow more people to attend," Fahmy said.

Haikal, 89, was editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram daily newspaper for 17 years, from 1957 to 1974. He was one of the journalists who was closest to President Nasser, and had a strong influence on Egyptian politics until a disagreement with President Sadat in 1974.

Since then Haikal has been a respected commentator on Egyptian and Arab affairs. For almost six years he presented a weekly show on Al-Jazeera called'With Haikal'.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/59296.aspx