Egypt has room for everyone: Army chief

CAIRO — Egypt’s army-backed rulers met yesterday to discuss their bloody confrontation with deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood amid contrasting proposals for compromise and a fight to the death.

In a speech to military and police officers, Army Chief Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi promised to crack down on anyone using violence, but also struck an apparently inclusive note, telling Mr Morsi’s supporters “there is room for everyone in Egypt”, according to the army’s Facebook page.

The Brotherhood, under intense pressure since police stormed its protest camps in Cairo and killed hundreds of its supporters, said it was planning more marches to demand the reinstatement of Mr Morsi, who was ousted by the army on July 3.

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is grappling with the worst bout of internal bloodshed in its modern history, only 30 months after President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown.

Egypt’s new rulers blame the Muslim Brotherhood, which won five successive votes after Mubarak’s fall in 2011, but drew accusations that it was incompetent and bent on consolidating its position. The Brotherhood leaders have accused the military of sabotaging it and plotting its demise.

Around 800 people have died in a crackdown that has earned the military rulers condemnation from major aid donor the United States and the European Union, but support from wealthy Arab allies led by Saudi Arabia, which fears the spread of Brotherhood ideology to the Gulf monarchies.

Before the Cabinet met, the liberal Deputy Prime Minister, Ziad Bahaa El-Din, is said to have floated a conciliatory proposal advocating an end to a State of Emergency declared last week and political participation for all parties, including the right to free assembly.

But his initiative seemed at odds with the position of Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, who suggested outlawing the 85-year-old Brotherhood, which would effectively force it underground.

At dawn, the police raided the homes of 34 Brotherhood members in Alexandria and arrested seven people, security sources said.

There were no reports of trouble yesterday afternoon and the capital’s frenetic streets were returning to normal, although a dusk-to-dawn curfew was still in place.

Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday’s carnage, and shares plunged 3.9 per cent.

In calibrated rebukes to the army, the US has delayed delivery of four F-16 fighters and scrapped a joint military exercise, but it has not halted its US$1.55 billion (S$1.97 billion) a year in aid to Egypt, mostly to finance US-made arms supplies. The EU says it will urgently review relations.

Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy yesterday sought to pre-empt any Western attempt to use aid flows as leverage, saying he would review all such assistance to see “what aid is being used to pressure Egypt and whether this aid has good intentions and credibility”. Agencies