Egypt army acts to remove Morsi as deadline passes

CAIRO — A military takeover was underway in Egypt at press time after the military’s ultimatum to President Mohammed Morsi to step down expired yesterday.

A top Morsi adviser said a “military coup” was underway and warned of “considerable bloodshed”. Mr Essam Al Haddad posted a Facebook message late last night saying: “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.” He warned that “the message will resonate throughout the Muslim world loud and clear: Democracy is not for Muslims.”

Egypt’s military moved to tighten its control on key institutions earlier yesterday, putting officers in the newsroom of state TV, in preparation for its push to remove the country’s Islamist President.

For the second time in Egypt’s tumultuous two years of upheaval, the powerful army was positioned to remove the country’s leader. But this time, ousting a democratically-elected President, the first in Egypt’s history, makes its move potentially explosive.

Just before the 48-hour deadline set for him to give up power, which expired at 4.30pm local time (10.30pm, Singapore time) yesterday, Mr Morsi repeated his vows not to step down in the face of millions of protesters in the streets for the fourth straight day, in the biggest anti-government rallies the country has seen. Cairo’s central Tahrir Square was a sea of furiously waving Egyptian flags as the throngs waited for an announcement by the military that the deed was done.

Mr Morsi, inaugurated a year ago after the 2011 fall of his autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak, said abiding by his electoral legitimacy was the only way to prevent violence. He criticised the military for “taking only one side”.

Mr Morsi earlier repeated his offer of forming a national coalition government but it was rejected by the head of the army, Defence Minister Gen Abdel Fattah El Sissi, a source from Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood told the Guardian. The President’s office also issued a statement on its Facebook page, accusing the opposition of rejecting dialogue, an inflammatory assertion. Opposition factions argue that Mr Morsi and his allies have allowed countless opportunities for dialogue slide by and it was never a priority for his presidency.

Mr Morsi’s Islamist supporters have vowed to resist what they call a coup against democracy, and have also taken to the streets by the tens of thousands. At least 39 people have been killed in clashes since Sunday, raising fears the crisis could further explode into violence.

At press time last night, the general command of the Egyptian armed forces was locked in a meeting with religious, national, political and youth figures, the army said on its official Facebook page. Gen El Sissi held a group meeting with leading reform advocate and former UN diplomat Mohammed ElBaradei, Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, Al Azhar mosque’s grand imam Sheik Ahmed El Tayeb, and Coptic Pope Tawadros II to discuss its political road map, a spokesman for the senior opposition National Democratic Front, Mr Khaled Daoud, said on state TV. Also attending the meeting were a representative of the new youth movement behind this week’s protests and some members of the ultraconservative Salafi movements.

Under a plan leaked to state media, the military would install a new interim leadership, the Islamist-backed constitution suspended and the Islamist-dominated Parliament dissolved.

The military beefed up its presence inside the headquarters of state television on the banks of the Nile River in central Cairo. Crack troops were deployed in news production areas. Officers from the army’s media department moved inside the newsroom and were monitoring output, though not yet interfering, staffers said.

The state TV is run by the Information Minister, a Muslim Brotherhood member put in the post by Mr Morsi, and its coverage had largely been pro-government. But in recent days, the coverage saw a marked shift. State radio has seen a similar shift.

The state-run Al Ahram newspaper reported that the military had placed several leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood under surveillance and issued a foreign travel ban on Mr Morsi and the Islamist group’s top leaders.

The escalating tensions between Mr Morsi’s Islamist supporters and their opponents continued to spur street violence overnight. Egyptian officials said at least 18 people had died in street fighting near an Islamist rally in support of Mr Morsi near Cairo University. Confrontations on the streets reflected an equally bitter clash at the most senior levels of state and military power.

“We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool,” the armed forces said on Facebook early yesterday in a posting titled “Final hours”.

The posting quoted General El Sisi as saying “it was more honourable for us to die than to have the people of Egypt terrorised or threatened”.

The President’s spokesman said earlier yesterday it was better that he die in defence of democracy than be blamed by history. “It is better for a President, who would otherwise be returning Egypt to the days of dictatorship, from which God and the will of the people has saved us, to die standing like a tree,” Mr Ayman Ali said.

“Rather than be condemned by history and future generations for throwing away the hopes of Egyptians for establishing a democratic life.”

In an emotional, rambling midnight television address, Mr Morsi said he was democratically elected and would stay in office to uphold the constitutional order, declaring: “The price of preserving legitimacy is my life.” AGENCIES