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EGYPT’S PRESIDENT MOHAMED Morsi has rejected an army ultimatum threatening to intervene if the Islamist leader did not meet the demands of the people, raising the stakes in the country’s political crisis.
The army statement, read out on television yesterday, had given Morsi 48 hours to comply with its call.
“If the demands of the people are not met in this period… (the armed forces) will announce a future roadmap and measures to oversee its implementation,” it said.
But in a statement issued overnight, the presidency insisted it would continue on its own path towards national reconciliation. The army declaration had not been cleared by the presidency and could cause confusion, it said.
Egyptian protesters ransack the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in the Muqatam district in Cairo yesterday. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
The presidency also denounced any declaration that would “deepen division” and “threaten the social peace”.
Morsi was consulting “with all national forces to secure the path of democratic change and the protection of the popular will”, it added.
“The civil democratic Egyptian state is one of the most important achievements of the 25 January revolution,” said the presidency, referring to the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt will absolutely not permit any step backward whatever the circumstances.
The army’s statement came just a day after millions of protesters took to the streets across Egypt Sunday, calling for Morsi to step down. It received a rapturous welcome from Morsi’s opponents, still camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Tamarod, the grassroots campaign behind Sunday’s massive protests against Morsi, also hailed the statement by the armed forces which it said had “sided with the people”.
It “will mean early presidential elections”, Tamarod’s spokesman Mahmud Badr told reporters.
Opponents of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi waves Egyptian national flags during a protest outside the presidential palace, in Cairo. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Tens of thousands of jubilant protesters poured into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other large cities after the statement was broadcast. Raucous cheers rang out across main squares.
In Tahrir, protesters voiced their support for army chief and Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, chanting: “Come down Sisi, Morsi is not my president.”
The army, which led a tumultuous transition after the 2011 revolt that ousted Mubarak, had given all parties one week to reconcile their differences.
“This week, there has been no sign of gestures or acts,” the army statement said. “Wasting more time will lead only to more division… which we have warned and continue to warn against.”
Egypt has been deeply divided between Morsi’s Islamist supporters and a broad-based opposition.
Ministers resigning
The huge turnout for Sunday’s protests, which the military put at millions nationwide, handed the initiative to the opposition Tamarod movement.
Tamarod had issued its own ultimatum, giving Morsi until 3pm (Irish time) on Tuesday to quit or face an open-ended campaign of civil disobedience.
But the army statement significantly increased the stakes.
Sixteen people died in protests on Sunday, including eight in clashes between supporters and opponents of the president outside the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Morsi belongs, the health ministry said.
Early on Monday, protesters set the Brotherhood’s headquarters ablaze before looting it.
“This is a historic moment. The Brotherhood ruined the country, so stealing from them is justified,” one man said.
A senior government official told AFP that four ministers – tourism, environment, communication and legal affairs – had tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil. This morning, reports suggest that the Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr has also stepped aside.
Supporters of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi attend a rally in Nasser City, in Cairo. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Tamarod – Arabic for rebellion – is a grassroots campaign which says it has collected more than 22 million signatures to a petition demanding new elections.
On Sunday, opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi urged military intervention if Morsi refused to quit, stressing however that the best outcome would be for him to step down of his own accord.
Morsi’s opponents accuse him of having betrayed the revolution by concentrating power in Islamist hands and of sending the economy into freefall.
His supporters say he inherited many problems from a corrupt regime, and that he should be allowed to complete his term, which ends in 2016.
But the counter-demonstrations they organised in the run-up to Sunday’s protests failed to draw the numbers that the opposition brought out onto the streets.
US President Barack Obama, whose government is a major military aid donor to Egypt, called on Morsi’s government to reach out to the opposition.
“What is clear right now is that although Mr Morsi was elected democratically, there is more work to be done to create the conditions in which everybody feels their voices are heard,” he said.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell stressed: “We don’t take sides, we don’t have a particular party or group or interest that we’re backing.”
The United Nations warned that what happened in Egypt would have a bearing on other that toppled authoritarian governments during and after the 2011 Arab Spring.
“What Egypt does with its transition will have a significant impact on other transition countries in the region,” said UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey.
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Makes no difference who you vote for, You still get the WEF government
@087 bed: WEF? – World Economic Forum?
@087 bed: see https://conspiracychart.com for all things NWO, chemtrails, chipping, and replacement theories.
@9QRixo8H: Are you a qualified tool or still an apprentice, All you do here is push disinformation in the comments.
I wonder if the same secret service would protect Netanyahou…. That could solve a lot of problems
@Dominic Leleu: and potential assassins should be vetted by the NRA to ensure a more positive outcome. Might be an idea to invite putin, xi, orban and others
@Alan: agreed
When thinking about Simon Coveney , this a verbatim quote
Owning your own home is not a bad aspiration, but if there was more certainty in the rental market in Ireland, you would see more people choosing to rent and to invest in rental property,” said Coveney.
“The attitude towards long-term rental is changing in Ireland and we need to respond to that with market conditions that reinforce and encourage that change of mindset.”
@Andrew Kiely: what’s your point?
@SYaxJ2Ts: His point is, that Coveney’s prophecy, hope & implementation of same came through in Govt policy & is part of the problem today. It wouldn’t affect you Kevin as a Govt lackey on a big salary, but it affects thousands of young working Irish people who are paying extortionate rent & who can’t buy or afford a home in Ireland today.
@SV3tN8M4: context is key here, and I don’t know when this quote is from, but surely certainty in the rental market is a good thing, albeit aspirational rather than real? You know, some security of tenure, rent certainty, that kind of thing. Anything to add here? Or are you just going to sling insults
@SV3tN8M4: and any chance of backing up your claim from yesterday that SF will introduce sleight of hand legislation to increase granting of asylum applications? I’ve asked twice already. Surely you’ve managed to find the relevant evidence by now
@SV3tN8M4: I suppose all those people the Gardai have charged were all working very hard to buy a house and provide for their families. Most of them staying in the city centre at the taxpayers cost
@Peter Byrne: Wouldn’t know Peter, don’t have anything to do with them, too busy working trying to make ends meet & pay my mortgage. You must be a happy man today that you & your buddies got a top up of 750,000, you might get your bumper Exit package & NDA now. Harris likes to reward Deceit & Incompetence, some of those in your organization are no better than those you judged above.
@Andrew Kiely:
I’ve just spent a week in Metz France.
As in other European cities all accommodation within the city is in apartments. Apartments cannot be used for property speculation. If an apartment is unoccupied for an extended period it has to be sold back to the freehold company (owners association).
If you want to live in a house – to go to a village 10 -20 km out.
Buttimer has repeatedly been rejected by the cork electorate, and now finally by his own party. Maybe this time the penny will drop
@mickey mac: Once Fine Gael learned that Buttimer was attending pro-Palestinian events that was end for him.
@mickey mac: He is left there for Tokenistic reasons by Fine Gael.
Simon Coveney looked well, which is important in politics. But after that he lacked leadership. He fronted up the ‘ same-s marriage’ referendum by parroting the party line and adding in his own daughters. One of them might be that way.
Fair point but not compelling. let them have all the rights of marriage, but call it something else. Marriage always meant man and woman.
Neologisms are used every day to overturn the established order.
For example – gender was a grammatical term to distinguish three different forms of a noun. Male and female got into it because they were two obvious categories. But there was never a case of an obvious male having a female noun form or visa versa.
Generally a neuter gender noun is a noun that denotes a lifeless thing. A thing which is neither male nor female.
But as anyone who learned French knows a pen and a pencil have different genders even though they both are technically neuter.
La plume de ma tante
Le crayon de ma tante
In fact there is no neuter gender in French. An omission which the French chattering class are struggling to cope with.
Anyhow this is a long way from Simon Coveney – other than to point out that weak leaders are easily pushed into fronting up anything which a mob (nowadays a Twitter mob) wants.
There is certainly a FG seat in Cork SC, especially as it’s now a 5 seater. Going to a battle royal between Úna McCarthy and Shane O Callaghan to whose ahead after the first count. That’s vital. As it’s extremely unlikely both will get elected
have your say