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Egypt’s Army Issues Ultimatum to Morsi Egypt’s Army Issues Ultimatum to Morsi
(about 7 hours later)
CAIRO — Egypt’s top generals on Monday gave President Mohamed Morsi 48 hours to respond to a wave of mass protests demanding his ouster, declaring that if he did not, then the military leaders themselves would impose their own “road map” to resolve the political crisis. CAIRO — Egypt entered a perilous 48 hours on Monday when the military delivered an ultimatum to the country’s first democratically elected president, hundreds of thousands of protesters renewed calls to oust him from office and the president’s Islamists allies vowed to take to the streets to stop what they called “a military coup.”
Their statement, in the form of a communiqué read over state television, plunged the military back into the center of political life just 10 months after it handed full power to Mr. Morsi as Egypt’s first democratically elected leader. In a military communiqué read over state television that echoed the announcement toppling former President Hosni Mubarak two chaotic years ago, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces demanded Monday that President Mohamed Morsi satisfy the public’s demands within two days, or else the generals would impose their own “road map” out of crisis.
The communiqué was issued following an increasingly violent weekend of protests by millions of Egyptians angry with Mr. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers. It came hours after protesters destroyed the Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo. But instead of soothing the volatile standoff between Mr. Morsi’s opponents and his supporters, the generals seemed to add to the uncertainty that has paralyzed the state, decimated the economy and brought millions into the streets Sunday demanding the president step down. It was not clear what the military meant when it said Mr. Morsi must satisfy the public’s demands, what it might do if that vague standard was not met and who would be able to unite this badly fractured nation.
In tone and delivery, the communiqué echoed the announcement the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued 28 months ago to oust President Hosni Mubarak and seize full control of the state. But the scope and duration of the military’s latest threat of political intervention — and its consequences for Egypt’s halting transition to democracy — were not immediately clear, in part because the generals took pains to emphasize their reluctance to take over and the inclusion of civilians in any next steps. The generals did, however, open a new confrontation with Mr. Morsi’s allies in the Muslim Brotherhood with its threat to impose a political “road map” on the president. Brotherhood members rallied in half a dozen cities to denounce the threat of a military takeover, a reminder that the group remains a potent force unwilling to give up the power it has waited 80 years to wield.
For Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood, however, a military intervention would be an epic defeat. It would deny them the chance to govern Egypt that the Brotherhood had struggled 80 years to finally win, in democratic elections, only to see their prize snatched away after less than a year. “We understand it as a military coup,” one adviser to Mr. Morsi said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations. “What form that will take remains to be seen.”
“We understand it as a military coup,” one adviser to Mr. Morsi said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations. “What form that will take remains to be seen.” Mr. Morsi and the military’s top officer, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, entered a delicate negotiation on Monday, one fraught with risks for both men, and for the nation. Racked with fuel shortages, dwindling hard currency reserves and worries about its wheat supplies, Egypt urgently needs a government stable and credible enough to manage difficult and disruptive economic reforms. A move by the military to force the Brotherhood from power, despite its electoral victories, could trigger an Islamist backlash in the streets that would make stability and economic growth even more elusive.
The military’s ultimatum seemed to leave Mr. Morsi few choices: cut short his term as president with a resignation or early elections; share significant power with a political opponent in a role such as prime minister; or attempt to rally his Islamist supporters to fight back for power in the streets. President Obama called Mr. Morsi late Monday night, Morsi aides said. They described Mr. Obama’s message as a confirmation that the White House was continuing to deal with Mr. Morsi as Egypt’s elected president and to support the country’s transition to civilian democracy. Obama administration officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mr. Morsi’s adviser said the military should not assume that the Brotherhood would accept its ouster without an all-out battle to defend his democratic victories. The Brotherhood may not “take this lying down,” the adviser said. In a sternly worded statement issued after 1 a.m. Tuesday, Mr. Morsi’s office said it was continuing with its plans for dialogue and reconciliation with its opponents. Noting that it was not consulted before the military made its statement, Mr. Morsi’s office asserted that “some of its phrases have connotations that may cause confusion in the complicated national scene” and suggested that it “deepens the division between the people” and “may threaten the social peace no matter what the motivation.”
Citing “the historic circumstance,” the military council said in its statement that “if the demands of the people have not been met” within 48 hours then the armed forces would be forced by patriotic duty “to announce a road map of measures enforced under the military’s supervision” for the political factions to settle the crisis. Earlier, speaking to a crowd of Islamists armed with makeshift clubs and hard hats at a rally in Cairo, a senior Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Beltagy, called on the crowd to defend Mr. Morsi’s “legitimacy” as the elected president. “No coup against legitimacy of any kind will pass except over our dead bodies,” he said, dismissing the latest protests as “remnants” of the Mubarak elite.
Just what would meet “the demands of the people,” the military did not specify. The rallying cry of the protests that precipitated the announcement was the demand for Mr. Morsi’s immediate departure. At a late night rally for Mr. Morsi across the Nile in Giza, Mohamed Fadala, a financial manager, said that General Sisi appeared to have considered only the non-Islamist half of Egypt. “Sisi ignored half the people!”
It remained possible, though, that many might accept a less drastic power-sharing measure until the election of a new Parliament expected later this year, especially under military oversight. The generals, for their part, have shown little enthusiasm for returning to politics, especially after their own prestige was badly tarnished by the year of street violence and economic catastrophe they oversaw after ousting Mr. Mubarak. But as the protests against Mr. Morsi grew larger than those that pushed out Mr. Mubarak, it became clear that Mr. Morsi had lost the support of much of the population and has never fully controlled the security services or other institutions of the state.
But the military council also emphasized its reluctance to resume political power. It has made the same disclaimer at its seizure of power in 2011, but reiterated more vigorously on Monday. Protesters faulted him and his Brotherhood allies for what they called a rush to monopolize political power. And in public squares that just a year ago echoed with chants demanding an end to military rule, cheers rose up again Monday welcoming the generals’ help in pressuring Mr. Morsi.
“The armed forces will not be party to the circle of politics or ruling, and the military refuses to deviate from its assigned role in the original democratic vision that flows from the will of the people,” the statement said. Citing “the historic circumstance,” the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said in its statement Monday that “if the demands of the people have not been met” within “48 hours” then the generals would “announce a road map” to be “enforced under the military’s supervision.” But the generals insisted that under its auspices “all political factions” would participate in settling the crisis.
But it also noted that the “political forces” had failed to “reach consensus and resolve the crisis” on their own by a deadline set last week in a statement from the defense minister, Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sisi. The “demands of the people” appeared to refer to the rallying cry of the wave of protests: a call for Mr. Morsi’s immediate departure. The generals, however, did not elaborate, leaving open the possibility that they might accept another power-sharing arrangement.
“The wasting of more time will only create more division and conflict,” the statement continued, pledging that the armed forces’ own “road map” would include “the participation of all the sincere national factions and trends.” The general added a special mention for inclusion of “the youth,” who the generals called “the exploders of their glorious revolution.” “The wasting of more time will only create more division and conflict,” the statement warned.
Many of the demonstrators now calling for Mr. Morsi’s ouster spent months last year marching to demand that the military give up its hold on power. And at a continuing demonstration outside the presidential palace to call for Mr. Morsi’s exit, marchers had been chanting against both “Brotherhood rule and military rule” when the announcement came out. Still, the generals were also eager to disavow any eagerness to return to political power. “The armed forces will not be party to the circle of politics or ruling, and the military refuses to deviate from its assigned role in the original democratic vision,” the generals insisted.
But different cheers broke out immediately. “The army and the people are one hand!” protesters chanted, recalling the heady days immediately after the overthrow of Mr. Mubarak when the military was first hailed as a savior. They had made a similar pledge when they took power two years ago, but as the Islamist pressure grew Monday night the generals issued a second statement specifically denying that they planned a “military coup.”
Many said their protests would continue. “I think it’s late,” said Hassan Ismail, a local organizer. "There has been a lot of blood." “The conviction and culture of the Egyptian armed forces doesn’t allow following the policy of ‘military coups,’ ” the statement declared, though it was a military coup that brought Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser to power 60 years ago. “The armed forces’ statement was intended to push all political parties in the nation to find solutions to the current crisis quickly.”
He rejected any compromise that would leave Mr. Morsi in office, and at the same time sought to distinguish the anti-Morsi movement from the military. “We don’t want to be against the army,” Mr. Ismail said. "And we don't want the army to be against us." The Interior Ministry, whose police officers have been in open revolt against Mr. Morsi, issued its own statement endorsing the military’s intervention — another reminder of the breakdown in authority over the holdover institutions of the Mubarak government. “The security apparatus announces its full solidarity with the armed forces’ statement out of keenness on the national security and the higher interests of Egypt and its great people,” the statement declared.
The Health Ministry said earlier on Monday that 16 people had died in the protests, including eight in a battle outside the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters, most of them from gunshot wounds. All of those killed outside the headquarters were young, including one who was 14 and another who was 19, the ministry said. One died of heat-related causes at a demonstration outside the presidential palace. Egypt had been bracing for weeks for Sunday’s day of protests against Mr. Morsi on the anniversary of his inauguration. But the turnout surprised almost everyone: the crowds were far larger — running into the millions — and less violent than expected. The result not only underscored the depth of the animosity against Mr. Morsi but also dispelled Brotherhood arguments that a conspiracy of Mubarak “remnants” accounted for most of the opposition in the streets.
After dawn broke Monday, some demonstrators remained in Tahrir Square, epicenter of Egypt’s Arab Spring revolution, resting under impromptu shelters. While much of the protest elsewhere in Cairo seemed peaceful, activists reported dozens of sexual assaults on women in Tahrir Square overnight. By Monday morning, however, clashes between Brotherhood supporters and opponents had left 15 dead across the country. Protesters attacked several Brotherhood offices. And in Cairo a mob attacked the Brotherhood’s headquarters with Molotov cocktails, setting it on fire, breaking down its doors and looting the building.
The fiercest confrontation seemed to be at the Brotherhood headquarters where members of the organization who were trapped inside fired bursts of birdshot at the attackers and wounded several of them. A few Brotherhood members trapped inside the darkened building tried to hold off the attackers by firing blasts of birdshot, and after midnight other gunmen evidently arrived as well. The Health Ministry reported eight deaths outside the building, all but one from gunshots.
After pelting the almost-empty building for hours with stones, gasoline bombs and fireworks, the attackers doused its logo with kerosene and set it on fire, witnesses said, seeming to throw what appeared to be sandbags used to fortify the windows out onto the street. Protest organizers had given Mr. Morsi until Tuesday to resign and threatened a general strike. Protesters chained or blockaded government offices in 11 provinces. By late afternoon, four cabinet ministers had resigned. By evening, the crowds in several cities had grown to hundreds of thousands again.
It was not immediately clear what became of the Brotherhood members, but shortly before the building was stormed, armored government vehicles were seen in the area, possibly as part of an evacuation team. Many of the demonstrators now calling for Mr. Morsi’s ouster had spent months last year marching to demand that the military give up its hold on power.
The scale of the demonstrations, just one year after crowds in the same square cheered Mr. Morsi’s inauguration, appeared to exceed even the mass street protests in the heady final days of the uprising that overthrew Mr. Mubarak in 2011. But when the military’s announcement was broadcast over the radio on Monday, cheers erupted. “The army and the people are one hand!” protesters chanted, recalling the heady days after the overthrow of Mr. Mubarak, before the public soured on the rule of the generals.
Clashes between Mr. Morsi’s opponents and supporters broke out in several cities around the country, killing at least seven people — one in the southern town of Beni Suef, four in the southern town of Assiut and two in Cairo — and injuring hundreds. Protesters ransacked Brotherhood offices around the country. Hassan Ismail, a local organizer, rejected any compromise that left Mr. Morsi in office and at the same time sought to distance his movement from its new military allies. “We don’t want to be against the army,” Mr. Ismail said. “And we don’t want the army to be against us.”
Demonstrators said they were angry about the lack of public security, the desperate state of the Egyptian economy and an increase in sectarian tensions. But the common denominator across the country was the conviction that Mr. Morsi had failed to transcend his roots in the Brotherhood, an insular Islamist group officially outlawed under Mr. Mubarak that is now considered Egypt’s most formidable political force. Some liberals, however, say they saw hope in what they characterized as the public’s consistent rejection of any return to authoritarianism, from the generals or the Brotherhood.
The scale of the protests across the country delivered a sharp rebuke to the group’s claim that its victories in Egypt’s newly open parliamentary and presidential elections gave it a mandate to speak for most Egyptians. “The people have imposed a balance of weakness between the military and authoritarian Islamists,” argued Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, “and this could be good in the long run, provided the fight for democracy continues.”
“Enough is enough,” said Alaa al-Aswany, a prominent Egyptian writer who was among the many at the protests who had supported the president just a year ago. “It has been decided for Mr. Morsi. Now, we are waiting for him to understand.”
Shadi Hamid, a researcher at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar who studies the Muslim Brotherhood closely, said: “The Brotherhood underestimated its opposition.” He added, “This is going to be a real moment of truth for the Brotherhood.”
Mr. Morsi and Brotherhood leaders have often ascribed much of the opposition in the streets to a conspiracy led by Mubarak-era political and financial elites determined to bring them down, and they have resisted concessions in the belief that the opposition’s only real motive is the Brotherhood’s defeat. But no conspiracy can bring millions to the streets, and by Sunday night some analysts said the protests would send a message to other Islamist groups around the region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
“It is a cautionary note: Don’t be too eager for power, and try to think how you do it,” Mr. Hamid said, faulting the Egyptian Brotherhood for seeking to take most of the power for itself all at once. “I hear concern from Islamists around the region about how the Brotherhood is tainting Islamism.”
Mr. Morsi’s administration appeared caught by surprise. “There are protests; this is a reality,” Omar Amer, a spokesman for the president, said at a midnight news conference. “We don’t underestimate the scale of the protests, and we don’t underestimate the scale of the demands.” He said the administration was open to discussing any demands consistent with the Constitution, but he also seemed exasperated, sputtering questions back at the journalists. “Do you have a better idea? Do you have an initiative?” he asked. “Suggest a solution and we’re willing to consider it seriously.”

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting.

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting.