EL-SISI CALLS ON AMERICA TO PRESSURE PROTESTERS
Jakarta, 27 Ramadhan 1434/4 Agustus 2013 (MINA) – Egypt’s armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has lashed out at the United States, urging Washington to do more to pressure the Muslim Brotherhood to end its protest encampments.
In a rare interview, the commander – who led the military coup that ousted president Mohamed Morsi one month ago – warned of police action to disperse the protests.
According to Ahram Online media as quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), The United States provides $1.3 billion in mostly military aid to Cairo every year, but El-Sisi effectively accused President Barack Obama’s administration of turning its back on Egypt.
“You left the Egyptians, you turned your back on the Egyptians and they won’t forget that. Now you want to continue turning your backs on Egyptians?” El-Sisi said, on Thursday interview, published on Saturday.
“The US administration has a lot (of) leverage and influence with the Muslim Brotherhood and I’d really like the US administration to use this leverage with them to resolve the conflict,” he said.
When asked whether security forces would forcibly disperse the Brotherhood’s protest camps, El-Sisi said the task would not fall to the army.
“Whoever will clean these squares or resolve these sit-ins will not be the military. There is a civil police and they are assigned to these duties,” he said.
“On the 26th of July, more than 30 million people went out onto the streets to give me support. These people are waiting for me to do something.”
More than 250 people have been killed since Morsi’s overthrow, as clashes broke out around two massive protest camps set up by his supporters.
The United States has been trying to head off a further escalation as Egypt’s interim government has warned the protesters to disperse or face consequences.
El-Sisi has meanwhile emerged as a hero among Morsi opponents, his face staring down from the front pages of newspapers and street posters.
When asked whether he would seek the presidency, El-Sisi gave an enigmatic response.
“I want to say that the most important achievement in my life is to overcome this circumstance, [to ensure] that we live peacefully, to go on with our road map and to be able to conduct the coming elections without shedding one drop of Egyptian blood,” he said.
When pressed on the question, he replied that he doesn’t “aspire for authority.”
The army intervened amid massive protests against Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader, who won elections held a year after the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, a former air force commander who ruled Egypt for three decades.
El-Sisi defended the decision to topple Morsi.
“I expected if we didn’t intervene, it would have turned into a civil war. Four months before he left, I told Morsi the same thing,” he told the Post.
“What I want you to know and I want the American reader also to know is that this is a free people who rebelled against an unjust political rule, and this free people needs your support.”(T/P05/P04)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
