Egyptian officials meet with United States Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Efforts are underway to resolve the internal crisis after the July 3 coup., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Egyptian govt rejects McCain's 'clumsy' statements on Morsi's ouster
Ahram Online, Wednesday 7 Aug 2013
Spokesman for Egyptian presidency denounces statement by US Senator John McCain Monday describing Morsi's ouster as a military coup
An Egyptian presidential aide rejected statements by US Senator John McCain describing the popularly-backed military overthrow of Mohamed Morsi as a coup d'etat.
"John McCain is distorting facts. His clumsy statements are unacceptable in form and substance," presidential aide Ahmed El-Muslimani told Ahram Arabic website Monday evening.
McCain, who made the comments at a press conference in Cairo on Monday, is the first US official visiting Egypt to refer to the removal of Morsi as a military coup. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the Egyptian army had "restored democracy" and averted civil war by deposing the Islamist president.
A source from Egypt's foreign ministry told state news agency MENA that Egypt's interim foreign minister Nabil Fahmy was dismayed at McCain's statements and that the ministry is preparing an official response.
McCain expressed concerns during a news conference in Cairo earlier on Monday over the country's political process, saying the US "cannot support Egypt that is not moving to a democracy."
US Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham visited Egypt to take part in mediation efforts between Egypt's political rivals following Morsi's ouster.
McCain also urged that senior Brotherhood figures who have been detained since the 3 July ouster of Morsi be released.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/78492.aspx
US senators urge release of Islamists, Egypt unhappy with 'foreign pressure'
AP, Tuesday 6 Aug 2013
Senators McCain and Graham call for release of Egyptian Islamists; Presdiential spokesman El-Muslimani says 'foreign pressure has exceeded international standards'
Two US senators urged Egypt's military-backed government to release detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood before starting negotiations with the group, warning of worsening relations "if Egypt is not moving to democracy."
But Egypt's interim presidency denounced "foreign pressure" in a sign of its growing impatience with international mediations.
Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham spoke after meeting with top military and civilian leaders in Cairo as part of a flurry of international efforts to resolve a standoff between the government and supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi.
McCain said "we urge the release of political prisoners," referring to Brotherhood members who were detained after the military ousted Morsi, an Islamist, a month ago.
"In democracy, you sit down and talk to each other," Graham said, adding, "it is impossible to talk to somebody who is in jail."
Graham warned that US-Egyptian relations might otherwise be harmed.
"Some in Congress want to sever the relationship. Some want to suspend the aid," he said. "We have to be honest to where the relationship stands. ... We can't support Egypt that is not moving to democracy."
McCain and Lindsey Graham have also described the army's removal of Morsi as a coup.
Egypt's new government has held firm to a political road map announced July 3, when the military ousted Morsi following mass protests calling on him to step down.
US and other international officials have urged the inclusion of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in the political process going forward.
Top Egyptian officials said reconciliation is a priority but only after the Brotherhood renounces violence. They cite sectarian violence in southern Egypt, cases of torture of anti-Morsi protesters and the blocking of main roads.
Ahmed El-Muslimani, a spokesman for interim president Adly Mansour, told reporters that "foreign pressure has exceeded international standards." He said Egypt will protect "the revolution" — referring to June 30, the day hundreds of thousands of Egyptians revolted against Morsi's rule.
El-Musalamani didn't elaborate. However, his comments came as the country's powerful military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sissi and Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei held separate meetings with Graham and McCain, who arrived in Cairo on Monday at President Barack Obama's request to press senior Egyptians for a quick return to civilian rule.
Egypt's official news agency MENA reported that the two Republican senators and El-Sissi discussed efforts to end "the state of political polarization and stop the violence" while moving forward with Egypt's fast-track road map. The plans calls for amending the constitution and holding new elections by early next year "without discrimination or isolation."
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who arrived Friday, also was meeting with Mansour and ElBaradei.
Early Monday, Burns visited Khairat El-Shater, a top Muslim Brotherhood leader who is held in a Cairo prison. He was accompanied by a European Union envoy and Gulf foreign ministers.
Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president who came to power nearly a year and a half after the ouster of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak in a 2011 uprising, has been held at a secret location since his ouster.
Last week, he was visited by the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and a group of African statesmen, but the administration has said it will not allow any more envoys to visit him.
All talks are centered around averting collision between the military-backed government and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. They have been camping out in Cairo and its sister city of Giza for more than a month demanding Morsi's reinstatement as well as the return of the constitution and the parliament.
The protest camps have been used as a hotbed for street marches that blocked traffic and sometimes sparked street violence either with security forces, or Morsi's opponents.
In two incidents this month, more than 130 people, mostly Morsi supporters, were killed in clashes near their main sit-in in eastern Cairo.
The government said that it has ordered the security forces to clear out the protest camps because they pose "national security threat."
The Muslim Brotherhood publicly says it rejects any concessions and that its starting point would be Morsi's return to power. Privately, though, protesters say that the camp is their last bargaining
chip to press for the release of detained leaders and for guarantees that they will be included in politics.
A European Union official in Brussels has said diplomats were working on confidence-building measures such as releasing detained Brotherhood officials, dropping charges against other group members and dispersing the pro-Morsi sit-ins held at two squares on opposite ends of the Egyptian capital.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters on the confidential discussions.
In an official statement after meeting with Burns on Tuesday, ElBaradei stressed that Egypt's "priorities are to secure citizens and protect their lives, their possessions and to preserve security and law ... while moving forward to achieve comprehensive political reconciliation."
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/78476.aspx
US, EU envoys presented no initiatives on Egypt standoff: Islamist coalition
Ahram Online, Tuesday 6 Aug 2013
The National Coalition to Support Legitimacy rebuffs media reports that US envoy proposed former president Mohamed Morsi leave Egypt to end crisis
The National Coalition to Support Legitimacy delegation did not discuss with the US and EU envoys any initiative proposed to end the current political crisis between Egypt's interim government and the Muslim Brotherhood in its meeting, said Tarek El-Malt, the official spokesperson of the Islamist pro-Morsi coalition and leading member of the Islamist Al-Wasat Party.
El-Malt revealed to Al-Ahram Arabic news website that US ambassador Anne Patterson, reviled by many anti-Morsi Egyptians for her previous support to the deposed Islamist leader, did not suggest any solutions and did not even speak at all [during the meeting]. EU envoy Bernardo Leon and US envoy William Burns were the ones who spoke and did not propose any initiatives."
News reports in Egypt claimed that US envoy William Burns suggested that ousted president Morsi should leave Egypt and seek refuge in a foreign country to end the current political crisis.
El-Malt added that he did not meet the Qatari or Emirati foreign ministers nor was he invited to meet them.
"The coalition sent a message to the foreign mediators that we reject any foreign intervention in Egypt's internal affairs and that the solution to the current crisis will not be a security one but rather a political deal," El-Malt revealed, adding that Burns understood this reality.
"We did not invite those Arab and foreign mediators to Cairo. Those who support the coup called them because they are not confident in their move against legitimacy."
The Islamist coalition spokesman also denied that Burns and Leon discussed a recent proposal by former presidential candidate and Muslim Brotherhood ally Mohamed Selim El-Awa to end the standoff by turning to parliamentary elections.
"We appreciate the initiatives proposed by Dr. Salim El Awa and [former prime minister] Hisham Qandil as they were based on the constitution, but they were rejected by the other side, which has to decide whether they will accept political solutions or not," said El-Malt.
"We are flexible to accept a political solution, but incitement against legitimacy supporters has to stop. The closed Islamist religious TV channels have to be re-opened again and the leading Islamist figures who have been arrested and accused of false charges must be released," El-Malt said.
After expressing his "respect towards the 30 June protesters and their demands," El-Malt, however, insisted that any political solution should include the return to the 2012 constitution, the reinstatement of Morsi, and the return of the dissolved Shura Council.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/78447.aspx
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