One year after the secretive Muslim Brotherhood seized power and put their man, Mohammed Morsi in as President and dominated the Parliament, Egypt’s military has moved in, against a backdrop of millions of people on the streets protesting Morsi’s imposition of strict Sharia law and failure to deal with the collapsing economy. The coup was led by Defense Minister and army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Significantly, el-Sissi was appointed as a devout Muslim younger general by Morsi last year. He was also trained and well-regarded in Washington by Pentagon leadership. That he leads the coup indicates the depth of the rejection of the Brotherhood inside Egypt. Al-Sissi announced Wednesday night, July 3, that the head of the Constitution Court will act as provisional president and form an interim government of technocrats to run the country until early presidential and parliamentary elections. He was flanked by Christian, secular opposition and Muslim leaders. Al-Sissi said that all the army’s efforts to affect a national dialogue and reconciliation were welcomed by all factions and blocked by President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
Outrage aimed against US
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the mass mobilization of protesters in recent weeks that culminated in the decision by the military to actively take control was the clear anti-Washington character of the street protests. Demonstrators carried hand-made posters denouncing Obama and his pro-Muslim Brotherhood Cairo Ambassador, Anne Patterson.
Egypt’s Cairo Ambassador, Anne Patterson was a special target of the protests. Patterson made remarks June 18 to discourage the anti-Morsi protesters. She told Egyptians, “Some say that street action will produce better results than elections,” Patterson said. “To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical.” Then in an even more explicit interview with the Egyptian Ahram Online in May, the US diplomat refused to be critical of Morsi and stated, “The fact is they ran in a legitimate election and won. Of course it is challenging to be dealing with any new government. However, at the state institutional level, we are for instance still liaising with the same military and civil service personnel, and thus have retained the same long-established relations.”
The military action also came against the expicit intervention of US President Obama and his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. Obama called the Egyptian president and Dempsey phoned Chief of staff General Sedki Sobhi, hoping to defuse the three-way crisis between the regime, the army and the protest movement. Now Obama stands with more than egg on his face.
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