Egypt military hints at crackdown
Cairo: In a move that has fuelled fears of an imminent military crackdown against supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of Egypts
army called for mass demonstrations on Friday to provide the countrys defence force with a mandate to fight violence and terrorism.
Describing Egypt as being at a crossroad, General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi re-entered the political fray and alleged some were trying to take the country down a dark tunnel.
He directly challenged the Muslim Brotherhood by asking: Do you want to rule the country or destroy it?
This does not mean that I want terrorism or violence to take place, General al-Sissi said during a speech at an air and navy graduation ceremony on Wednesday.
There is an alternative political dialogue.
But thats not how the Muslim Brotherhood received the message. One of its senior officials, Essam el-Erian, wrote on his Facebook page: Your threat will not stop the millions from continuing to gather, describing el-Sissi as a coup leader who kills women, children and those at prayer.
The general's intervention confirmed some commentators worst fears that the military was not taking a backseat in the interim government and that Dr
Mursis overthrow was indeed a military coup, not a popular revolution.
Such is the international concern over the generals call for mass protests and the real potential for an escalation in violence, the US announced overnight it was delaying its planned delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt.
Given the current situation in Egypt, we do not believe it is appropriate to move forward at this time with the delivery of the F-16s a spokesman for the Pentagon, George Little said.
Egypt receives $US1.5 billion ($1.64 billion) per year in military aid from the US aid that was thrown into doubt when the military stepped in on July 3 to remove Mohamed Mursi from the presidency in a move it says had the support of millions of protesters who took to the streets to demand his ouster.
Dr Mursi has not been seen since he was forced from the presidency - the army is holding him incommunicado despite international calls for his release.
The country has just endured one of its most violent periods in the past month, in which at least 12 people died and more than 100 were injured, 19 of them when a bomb was thrown at a police station in the city of Mansoura, north-east of Cairo, early on Wednesday.
Clashes between pro- and anti-Mursi supporters have intensified over the past week and there are fears that the violence can only worsen if a significant number heed General al-Sissis call to demonstrate in support of the new government, where they will inevitably cross paths with opposing protests.
Many Egyptians were extremely worried about these developments, said Mustafa el-Labbad, the director of the Al Sharq Centre for Regional and Strategic Studies.
If the military does intervene there is the risk that in such a fragile situation the tension will escalate, Dr el-Labbad told Fairfax Media.
The army is calculating that the majority of the Egyptian society is opposing the Muslim Brotherhood ... and the Brotherhood are counting on violence and confrontation to keep their movement alive with their supporters.
One of the few voices calling for calm in the past week has been Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate, who is one of the vice-presidents in the military backed interim governments.
He urged the newly appointed justice minister to investigate the deaths of Mursi supporters.
Transitional justice and national reconciliation based on inclusiveness are only option, he wrote on Twitter.
The sooner we realise this the more lives are saved.
The Tamarod, or Rebellion, movement called on Egyptians to rally in support of the military, to officially demand the trial of [former President] Mohamed Mursi and support [the] armed forces in its coming war against terrorism.
The people and the army will fight against terrorism, its leaders wrote on their Facebook page.
The Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party denounced the militarys call for mass protests as a threat, and said it had at least 30 marches planned for Friday which would call for the downfall of the coup.
Meanwhile in Egypts restive North Sinai peninsula, escalating violence claimed more lives.
On Wednesday a car bomb exploded in the north Sinai peninsula, killing what the state television described as three militants near the city of El Arish.
The interim president, Adli Mansour, was meeting overnight with state officials to discuss the countrys deteriorating security situation.
The challenge is how to find a middle way, not to exclude anyone but integrate them into a new system, while still dealing with the leadership of the MB who are linked with criminal violations, Dr el-Labbad said.
You have to ensure there is a fair legal process to put the leadership before.
The national reconciliation process started by the interim government on Wednesday had little hope of succeeding in the current environment, he warned.
The Muslim Brotherhood had been asked to participate but they had so far refused.
If I were a Muslim Brotherhood member I would not sit at the table and negotiate about reconciliation, because there is a certain legitimacy lost by the ouster of the presidency.
On the other hand, you have the anti-Mursi camp who are presenting him as a despotic president, as a dictator who has lost the support of millions of Egyptians - they are acutely conscious of not replacing one dictator with another [military] dictator.