Egyptians flee after the army opened fire on demonstrators outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. At least 42 people have been reported killed and 322 injured., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
US envoy spurned by both sides on Egypt visit
Tuesday, 16 July 2013 00:00
CAIRO. — The first senior US official to visit Egypt since the army toppled its elected president was snubbed by both Islamists and their opponents yesterday.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns arrived in a divided capital where both sides are furious at the United States, the superpower which supports Egypt with US$1,5 billion in annual aid, mostly for the army that deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi two weeks ago.
Crisis in the Arab world’s most populous state, which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the strategic Suez Canal, has alarmed allies in the region and the West. Thousands of supporters of the ousted leader took to the streets yesterday.
Washington, never comfortable with the rise of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, has so far refused to say whether it views Morsi’s removal as a coup, which would require it to halt aid.
The State Department said Burns would meet “civil society groups” as well as government officials, but the Islamist Nour Party and the Tamarud anti-Morsi protest movement both said they had turned down invitations to meet Burns.
“First, they need to acknowledge the new system,” Tamarud founder Mahmoud Badr said of the Americans.
“Secondly, they must apologise for their support for the Muslim Brotherhood’s party and terrorism. Then we can think about it,” he told Reuters.
In a further slight, Badr posted a copy of his invitation, including the US embassy’s telephone number, on the Internet.
Nour, sometime allies of Morsi’s Brotherhood who have accepted the army takeover, said they had rejected meeting Burns because of “unjustified” US meddling in Egypt’s affairs.
The Brotherhood’s political party said it had no meeting planned with Burns. It was not immediately clear whether it was invited. While its opponents accuse Washington of backing Morsi, the Brotherhood suspects US involvement in his removal.
Burns did meet Adli Mansour, a judge installed as interim president by the army, and Hazem el-Beblawi, a liberal economist named interim prime minister. Beblawi is setting up a temporary cabinet staffed mainly by technocrats to lead the country under a “road map” foreseeing elections in about six months.
Islamists, who have maintained a vigil demanding Morsi be reinstated, called a mass protest for yesterday. Demonstrations in Cairo have been largely peaceful for the past week after at least 92 people were killed in the days after Morsi was toppled.
— Reuters.
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