This is startling. The army is signaling both its desire to remain
aloof and its desire to seek legitimacy through a united political
dispensation and is applying pressure to get that. The army is the
anvil that focuses the mind.
The authoritarian agendas of the Brotherhood are already thwarted by
a natural decline in popularity and the rise of creditable
alternative voices. Their foot dragging bluff has been called
brilliantly.
This will likely force the creation of a working cabinet like body of
folks who can cooperate and win support. That obviously sidelines
hardliners.
I think now that the cloud of uncertainty will soon dissipate over
Egypt and we will ultimately have a Egyptian 'miracle'
Egypt army gives
Mursi 48 hours to compromise in crisis
Mon, 1 Jul, 2013
By Asma Alsharif and
Tom Perry
CAIRO (Reuters) -
Egypt's powerful armed forces issued a virtual ultimatum to Islamist
President Mohamed Mursi on Monday, calling on the nation's feuding
politicians to agree on an inclusive roadmap for the country's future
within 48 hours.
A dramatic military
statement broadcast on state television declared the nation was in
danger after millions of Egyptians took to the streets on Sunday to
demand that Mursi quit and the headquarters of the ruling Muslim
Brotherhood were ransacked.
"If the demands
of the people are not realised within the defined period, it will be
incumbent upon (the armed forces)... to announce a road map for the
future," said the statement by chief-of-staff General Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi. It was followed by patriotic music.'
The people had
expressed their will with unprecedented clarity in the mass
demonstrations and wasting more time would only increase the danger
of division and violence, he said.'
The army said it would
oversee the implementation of the roadmap it sought "with
the participation of all factions and national parties, including
young people", but it would not get directly involved in
politics or government.
Anti-Mursi
demonstrators outside the presidential palace cheered the army
statement, and the main opposition National Salvation Front, which
has demanded a national unity government for months, applauded the
military's move.
It was the second time
in just over a week that the armed forces had issued a formal warning
to the politicians, and it appeared to pile pressure on Mursi to
concede power-sharing with the liberal, secular and left-wing
opposition.
SELF-DEFENCE?'
After the destruction
of its offices, the Brotherhood which operated underground until the
overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, said it was considering how best
to defend itself.
Cities were quiet
after Sunday's mass rallies that were bigger than anything seen since
the Arab Spring uprising. But the ransacking of the Brotherhood's
office highlighted deepening political polarisation, prompting the
movement to talk of acting in self-defence.
Five non-Brotherhood
government ministers tendered their resignations from the cabinet,
apparently in sympathy with the protesters, underlining a sense of
isolation for the party that won a series of elections last year.
"Both sides are
still in their trenches," a senior European diplomat said just
before the military statement.
Cairo's Tahrir Square
was filling again in late afternoon, with thousands of people
gathering for a second day.
For those who declared
the protests a continuation of the revolution that toppled Mubarak,
images of young men waving national flags at the scorched and
shattered windows of the Brotherhood compound recalled the fall of
Mubarak's ruling party offices, whose charred hulk still looks out
over the Nile.
Eight people died in a
night of fighting around the Brotherhood building, where guards fired
on youths hurling rocks and fire bombs. A Brotherhood official said
two of its members were hurt. Another eight people were killed in
clashes around the country on Sunday.
The Brotherhood's
official spokesman told Reuters that the attack had crossed a red
line of violence and among possible responses might be to revive
"self-defence committees" former during the 2011 uprising.
"The people will
not sit silent," Gehad El-Haddad said.
Mursi's movement
complained at the lack of police protection, which can only heighten
its sense of being under siege from both the liberal opposition and
state officialdom inherited from the old regime.
NOT TALKING
Liberal protest
organisers, who declared Mursi ousted by people power on Sunday, gave
him a new deadline of 5 p.m. on Tuesday to quit and call elections or
face a new mass rally.
Mursi, who has not
appeared in person, renewed offers of dialogue via allies and pledged
to work with a new parliament that could be elected if disputes over
election rules can be ironed out. But he has so far made no
substantial concessions.
The opposition does
not trust the Islamist movement, which critics accuse of using a
series of electoral victories to monopolise power. They want a total
reset of the rules of a democracy imperfectly worked out over the
past two years.
Mursi again
acknowledged through a spokesman that he had made mistakes, adding
that he was working to fix them and was open to dialogue. He made
similar offers last week, which were dismissed by the opposition. But
he showed no sign of quitting.
An aide to Mursi
outlined three ways forward: parliamentary elections, which he called
"the most obvious"; national dialogue, which he said
opponents had repeatedly rejected; and third, early presidential
elections, as demanded by protesters.
But that, he said,
"simply destroys our democracy".
The massive protests
showed that the Brotherhood has not only alienated liberals and
secularists by seeking to entrench Islamic rule, notably in a new
constitution, but has also angered millions of Egyptians with
economic mismanagement.
Tourism and investment
have dried up, inflation is rampant and fuel supplies are running
short, with power cuts lengthening in the summer heat and motorists
spending hours fuelling cars.
The cost of insuring
government debt against default surged to record highs. Forward
contracts indicated a significant fall for the pound against the
dollar.
Protest organisers
called on Egyptians to keep occupying central squares across the
country in a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience until Mursi
goes.
Up to now, the
Brotherhood has interpreted the army's stance as an endorsement of
Mursi's electoral legitimacy. However, his opponents believe the
generals are now clearly pressing Mursi to relent. Army helicopters
were counting protesters on Sunday.
Some uniformed
policemen marched among protesters in Cairo and Alexandria, chanting
"the police and the people are one", and several senior
officers addressed the Tahrir Square crowd.
Adding to the failure
to protect the Brotherhood headquarters, that cast doubt on whether
Mursi could rely on the security forces to clear the streets if he
gave the order.
Opposition leaders,
who have seen previous protest waves fizzle after a few days in
December and January, were to meet on Monday afternoon to plot their
next move.
Condemning the
violence, their coalition leadership said: "We call upon the
great Egyptian people who turned out in millions ... demanding
democratic transition and early presidential elections, to maintain
the peaceful nature of this great new revolutionary wave, and to
remain steadfast in the streets and squares until their demands are
met."
The United States and
the European Union have urged Mursi to share power with the
opposition, saying only a national consensus can help Egypt overcome
a severe economic crisis and build democratic institutions.
1 comment:
This is gorgeous!
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