EGYPT: Anti-Mursi protesters in Tahrir square celebrate the army's threat to impose their own road map for the nation, while the Egyptian president's supporters remain defiant

Record ID: 213995

  • Title: EGYPT: Anti-Mursi protesters in Tahrir square celebrate the army's threat to impose their own road map for the nation, while the Egyptian president's supporters remain defiant
  • Date: 2nd July 2013
  • Summary: HEADLINE OF PAPER WITH PICTURE OF PROTESTERS, WHICH READS: 'FINAL WARNING FROM THE ARMED FORCES TO MURSI'
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA90Q5JDUTPYQKDGXL39S7PALUD
  • Story Text: Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi continued an all night celebration in Tahrir square on Tuesday (July 2) morning, after the army gave the Islamist president a 48-hour deadline to compromise with protesters.
    The deadline comes after Mursi's liberal opponents brought millions out onto the streets to demand that he steps down and that early presidential elections be held.
    On Monday night, Mursi rejected the ultimatum, saying he had not been consulted and would pursue his own plans for national reconciliation.
    But while Mursi's supporters are calling the army's move a military coup, his opponents are celebrating, saying the army has rightly brought the president into check after he failed to properly govern the country and allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to dominate all of the institutions of state.
    Protester Rida Abdul Malek said that army had responded to the public's demands.

    "No, the army did not carry out a coup. [Defence minister and army chief] al-Sisi gave him a 48 hour warning, in order for things to be done legally. This is the people's will. They [the Muslim Brotherhood] have failed, they failed to govern," he said.
    Another protester, Ahmed Essawy, said the army had given people hope after more than two years of turmoil and despair.

    "This [the army's statement] has reassured people even more, and people feel that the army is with them and that the revolution is still strong. It has lifted everyone up," he said.
    Members of the Muslim Brotherhood have used the word "coup" to describe the military manoeuvre, which carries the threat of the generals imposing their own roadmap for the nation.
    President Mursi's supporters, most from Islamist parties such as his Muslim Brotherhood, have rallied on his behalf, and on Tuesday morning, several hundred continued an ongoing sit-in at Cairo University.
    One of them, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, said Monday's statement by Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would actually benefit the Islamist parties.

    "[Defence Minister and army chief] al-Sisi yesterday did a great service to the revolution, because he readied the Islamic forces once more. Because we felt that the revolution that we carried out was going to be stolen from us. So he readied the Islamist forces and made them gather themselves again and also they say it isn't a military coup, but in fact it is a liberal, secular coup against the Egyptian revolution," he said.
    General Sisi, in his broadcast statement, insisted that he had the interests of democracy at heart.
    Mursi supporter Ibrahim Abdullah said that all viewpoints had to be respected in Egypt.

    "The people in Tahrir square are part of the Egyptian people, they have a point of view that we have to respect. And likewise we have a point of view that must be respected, and the mechanism has to be democratic and accepted by everyone with regards to the legitimacy of the president. Regardless of the decisions [by the army], no one should impose their opinion on the other," he said.
    While the opposition wants early presidential elections, Mursi has said he favours moving to elections for a new parliament that would give the opposition more say - if, as he points out, it has popular support.
    But the opposition, convinced the Brotherhood is out to entrench its rule forever, does not trust Mursi and wants to wipe clean a messy slate of institutional reforms since 2011 before holding a vote.
    Mursi is Egypt's first freely elected president since the fall of Hosni Mubarak to a popular uprising in 2011.
    His first year in office has seen Egypt's tumultuous transition to democracy continue to stumble through economic depression and political divisions.
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