The
Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from power on
Wednesday and suspended the constitution in moves it said were aimed at
resolving the country’s debilitating political crisis.In a televised address to the nation after a meeting with a group of civilian political and religious leaders, the head of the powerful armed forces, Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, said the chief of Egypt’s constitutional court “will assume the presidency” on an interim basis until a new presidential election is held.
Sissi said the interim president will have the right to declare laws during the transitional period.
The announcement came as huge crowds of pro- and anti-government protesters massed in the streets of Cairo and the army deployed armored vehicles. In the afternoon, a top adviser to embattled Morsi had declared that a military coup was underway and warned that “considerable bloodshed” could ensue.
Up until the announcement, the Egyptian military had denied that it was staging it a coup. According to the official Middle East News Agency, top commanders were backing Muslim and Christian religious leaders, youth representatives and the head of a liberal opposition alliance in jointly presenting a “roadmap” for a political transition.
The plan is the result of an emergency meeting between military and civilian leaders, including top Muslim and Coptic Christian clerics and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the state-run news agency reported.
Without mentioning Morsi by name in a heavily anticipated eight-minute speech at 9 p.m. Wednesday night, Sissi said the military had responded to the people’s demands in an act of “public service.”
“The armed forces have tried in recent months, both directly and indirectly, to contain the internal situation and to foster national reconciliation between the political powers, including the presidency,” Sissi said. But those efforts had failed, he said. The president, he added, “responded with negativity in the final minutes.”
In a meeting with “religious, political and youth symbols,” the military accepted a “roadmap that will achieve a strong Egyptian society that does not alienate any of its children or strains, and ends this division,” Sissi said.
The announcement sparked cheers and celebration among Morsi opponents packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
But in eastern Cairo, s
upporters
of the Muslim Brotherhood, an entrenched Islamist movement that backs
Morsi, erupted in angry chants following Sissi’s speech, and stones
started flying. The Brotherhood’s two main political channels
immediately vanished from the airwaves.Ahead of the announcement of the roadmap, dozens of armored vehicles were deployed at eastern Cairo’s Rabaa Adawiya Mosque and outside Cairo University, where hundreds of thousands of Morsi supporters gathered.
The president’s supporters and opponents waited all day to see whether Egypt’s army would take action, as promised, once its deadline for Morsi and his opponents to forge a political agreement had expired.
At Rabaa al-Adawiya, Morsi supporters rallied even as army troops set up roadblocks along a main street leading to the mosque. From a stage before the crowd, Muslim Brotherhood officials told the crowd before the military’s announcement that they were calling on all supporters to come out into the streets to join them. One speaker urged the audience to remain peaceful. The army was still with them, he said, and was trying to resist pressure from Morsi’s liberal opposition to carry out a coup.
Earlier, Essam al-Haddad, a top presidential aide, declared Egypt’s predicament “a military coup.” In a post on his office’s official Facebook page at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, he warned that no coup could succeed without bloodshed.
“In this day and age, no military coup can succeed in the face of sizable popular force without considerable bloodshed,” Haddad wrote. Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered to support the president and Egypt’s pursuit of democracy, the statement continued. “To move them, there will have to be violence.” There would be “considerable bloodshed.”
“As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page,” Haddad wrote. “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.”
There were unconfirmed reports, meanwhile, that Morsi and the top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that constitutes the president’s main base of support, were being banned from travel.
Two
top Brotherhood officials reached by phone on Wednesday dismissed
rumors that Morsi and his aides had been put under house arrest or
barred from leaving the country. “This is not true. This is all empty
talk,” said Abdullah Shehata, a prominent Brotherhood member.
“Everything is fine.”The military denied Tuesday that it had any intention of launching a coup against Morsi, 61, who took office June 30, 2012, as Egypt’s first democratically elected president.
An armed forces spokesman reached by telephone Wednesday night said the military was preparing to hold a news conference. Asked whether Wednesday’s events could be considered a coup, he said hurriedly, “No. God willing, no.”
At Cairo University, several thousand Morsi supporters milled about as the sun set Wednesday, and armored vehicles packed with troops pulled up alongside the demonstrators. As they watched the troops arrive, many of the president’s supporters said they were prepared to fight.
“If the army comes out tonight, or tomorrow, the whole country might turn into another Syria,” said Alaa Hossam, a government bureaucrat and Morsi supporter. “It doesn’t mean that we will go fight the liberals,” he added. “It means we will fight against the army.”
Asked whether Morsi is finished, a former member of Egypt’s powerful military council, Gen. Mamdouh Abd al-Haq, said, “God willing.” In a telephone interview Wednesday night, Abd al-Haq declined to comment on what lies ahead for Egypt. But he said, “It is clear what is happening.”
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