CAIRO (AP) — Facing unrelenting pressure from Muslim Brotherhood
protesters, Egypt's military chief sought to justify his decision to
remove Mohmmed Morsi from office, saying Sunday in a televised speech
that the Islamist leader had violated his popular mandate and
antagonized state institutions.
The comments by Gen. Abdel-Fattah
el-Sissi — his first since the president's ouster nearly two weeks ago —
came as the designated interim prime minister pushed ahead with talks
to form a new Cabinet this week.
Reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei
was sworn in as Egypt's interim vice president for international
relations on Sunday. The move reinforces the role of liberals in the new
leadership who are strongly opposed to the Brotherhood.
Several
secular-minded candidates also have been approached to lead the foreign,
finance, culture, information and other key ministries. Nabil Fahmy,
who served as Egypt's former ambassador to the United States for over a
decade under Hosni Mubarak, was tapped to be foreign minister, according
to state media.
The United States sent its No. 2 diplomat in the
State Department, William Burns, to Cairo to meet with interim
government officials as well as civil society and business leaders
during his two-day visit. Burns is the first high-level American
official to visit since Morsi's ouster.
Many in the international
community fear the ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected
president, would undermine Egypt's transition to democracy.
The
State Department said Burns would underscore U.S. support for the
Egyptian people and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically
elected civilian government. The United States has called for Morsi's
release. Since his ouster, Morsi has been held incommunicado at an
undisclosed location.
El-Sissi said the armed forces acted to
remove Morsi on July 3 according to the will of the people as the
country was sliding toward deeper polarization and more violence. The
Islamist leader was the first democratically chosen leader after a
narrow victory in elections last year.
"The armed forces sincerely
accepted the choice of the people, but then political decision-making
began stumbling," el-Sissi said. "The armed forces remained committed to
what it considered the legitimacy of the ballot box, even though that
very legitimacy began to do as it pleased and in a way that contradicted
the basis and the origin of this legitimacy."
Morsi's election
came after months of turmoil following the 2011 revolution that removed
autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak from office, in a rocky transition that
was marred by persistent protests, political disagreements and an
economy teetering on bankruptcy.
His supporters say the military
staged a coup in a bid to undermine the rising influence of Islamists,
and thousands have camped out for days near a mosque in eastern Cairo to
demand he be reinstated. The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi
to power, has called for massive protests Monday to escalate pressure on
the military. Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for el-Sissi
to be removed, and put on trial accusing him of treason.
Brotherhood
spokesman Gehad el-Haddad responded to el-Sissi's remarks, saying that
the military had no right to act on behalf of the people of Egypt except
through "orders of their elected commander in chief," meaning Morsi. In
comments posted on Twitter, he said the military also has no right to
decide which protest is worthy enough to represent the people.
Morsi was ousted by the military after four days of protests by millions of his opponents.
El-Sissi
said Morsi "entered into a conflict with the judiciary, the media, the
police and the public opinion. Then (he) also entered into a conflict
with the armed forces." He didn't elaborate on the nature of the
conflict with the military, but said that comments about the military
offended "and were considered a stab to the national pride."
El-Sissi,
speaking to an auditorium filled with military officers, said the armed
forces could no longer stand on the sidelines as millions of Egyptians
took to the streets to call for the Islamist leader to step down over
allegations he was abusing his power.
The military chief said he
frequently advised Morsi and finally reached out to him before giving
him a 48-hour ultimatum to reconcile with opponents and address public
demands. He said he sent two envoys, including then Prime Minister
Hesham Kandil and a trusted legal expert, urging the president to hold a
referendum on whether voters still supported his presidency, but the
suggestion was rejected out of hand.
El-Sissi
appealed to all parties, in an apparent nod to Morsi's supporters, to
participate in the new transition, saying it is overseen by an unbiased
leader and will restore the right of people to choose.
But
continuing its crackdown on the Brotherhood leadership, Egypt's new
chief prosecutor ordered frozen the assets of Muslim Brotherhood leader
Mohammed Badie and at least 13 other senior members of the group pending
investigations into deadly violence outside the organization's
headquarters in Cairo and the Republic Guard forces club.
Meanwhile,
the military-backed government pressed forward with its transition
plan. ElBaradei, a 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sworn in as
vice president for international relations, although his exact mandate
was not clear. The former head of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, returned home to
assume a role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and became one of the most
visible leaders in the badly fractured Egyptian liberal and secular
opposition to Morsi's government.
Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for
the National Salvation Front, a coalition of largely secular groups,
said ElBaradei was no longer the head of the umbrella organization.
Designated prime minister Hazem
el-Beblawi also met with a number of candidates for his new Cabinet,
which is expected to be announced on Wednesday.
Others expected on
the roster are Mohammed Mukhtar Gomaa — who works in the office of the
head of the top learning institute in the Muslim Sunni world Al-Azhar —
as head of the religious endowment ministry. Gomaa, who also heads the
faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies in Al-Azhar university, was seen
as nod to moderate Islam.
The fast-track transitional timetable
included also appointing two panels to amend the constitution passed
under Morsi. Those changes would be put to a referendum within about 4
1/2 months, followed by parliamentary elections and the presidential
elections.
Violence in the aftermath of Morsi's ouster peaked a
week ago Monday when the military opened fire on Brotherhood supporters
who were holding a sit-in outside the Republican Guard forces club,
leading to hours of clashes. More than 50 protesters were killed and
hundreds wounded. The Brotherhood claimed the military opened fire on
protesters, while the army says it was responding to Morsi supporters
trying to storm the Republican Guard building.
Human
Rights Watch said it appeared that "the military and police used
unnecessary force" and that prosecutors have investigated only
Brotherhood supporters and leaders for their alleged roles in the
clashes, but not security forces.
"It is not clear from the footage which side used live ammunition
first," according to HRW's statement Sunday, which added that "what is
clear... is that the army responded with lethal force that far exceeded
any apparent threat to the lives of military personnel."
Meanwhile,
violence was on the rise in the restive Sinai peninsula. Soon after
midnight, militants fired a missile at a moving armored police vehicle
south of North Sinai's capital el-Arish, hitting instead a nearby bus
carrying workers going to a local cement factory, security officials
said. Three factory workers were killed and 16 were injured, including
three in serious condition, medical officials said. The officials spoke
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to
the media.
Security officials said militants also blew up a police
station under construction in central Sinai by detonating explosive
devices, leaving a resident seriously injured.
The secretary
general of the Brotherhood's political arm, Hussein Ibrahim, condemned
the violence on his Facebook page. Ibrahim called the attacks "staged"
with the intention of dragging the country toward violence, and in turn
justifying "the coup against legitimacy."
Militant groups have lashed out following the military ouster of Morsi,
targeting police stations and security checkpoints and vowing to drive
the military out of the area.
In the past 10 days, at least eight security officers have been killed.
Christians in the area have also been targeted. Two Christians were
killed, one a priest. A gas pipeline to Jordan was bombed, ending a lull
in such strikes.
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