PRO-DEMOCRACY COALITION SAYS DIALOGUE OFFER NOT FOR ‘COUP LEADERS’

        Cairo, 14 Muharram 1435/18 November 2013 (MINA) – A senior leader of the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy, a coalition of groups supporting ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, said their dialogue overture does not include “coup leaders” and “those who have blood on their hands.”

       “We have not extended the dialogue invitation to the coup government because it was installed by a military coup and refused to respect constitutional legitimacy,” Mohamed Ali Beshr, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and former local government minister under Morsi, told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

     “Our hands are only extended to political parties, revolutionaries and national figures,” he added, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting..

     “This does not include coup leaders and those who have blood on their hands,” he insisted.

      The coalition unveiled on Saturday a document in which it called for dialogue with Egypt’s revolutionary forces and national figures to end the military rule and preserve Egypt’s unity.

       It also called for an agreement on future steps to establish a modern and democratic state after breaking the “military coup”.

      The bloc welcomed all serious efforts to resolve Egypt’s lingering political crisis.

      “But there will be no compromises on the rights of the martyrs and the injured,” it stressed.

    The coalition set a number of steps to render any dialogue a success, including an end to bloodshed, hatemongering media campaigns and detentions of pro-democracy activists.

     It also demanded the release of all those arrested since the army’s July 3 ouster of Morsi.

    “We differentiate between the military establishment, which we all respect, and the leader of this institution which has turned against legitimacy, ousted the elected president and suspended the constitution,” Beshr told Anadolu Sunday.

    “Similarly, we draw a line between the judiciary and judges who have supported a military coup against constitutional legitimacy,” he added.

    The Muslim Brotherhood leader also reiterated respect for Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Muslim Sunni world.

     “But we disagree with Al-Azhar imam [Ahmed al-Tayeb] who supported the military coup,” he added.

    Al-Tayeb was one of several religious, political and youth leaders who stood shoulder to shoulder with army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi when he announced the suspension of the constitution and the appointment of an interim president on July 3. (T/P09/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).