He thinks the U.S. wanted Morsi out. Has he ever heard of a great friend of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, a man who has favored them in innumerable ways, a chap by the name of Barack Obama? “Egypt Islamist Calls for U.S. Embassy Siege Amid Unrest,” by Maram Mazen, Salma El Wardany and Alaa Shahine for Bloomberg, July 23:
A Muslim Brotherhood leader has called on Egyptians to lay siege to the U.S Embassy in Cairo to protest what he said was American support for the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
One person was killed and seven injured in clashes between Mursi’s supporters and opponents in Tahrir Square near the embassy and on a nearby bridge, state-run media reported yesterday, after Essam El-Erian told Muslim Brotherhood supporters that U.S. diplomats must leave Egypt without harm.
The daily protests by supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi threaten to undermine the army-installed government’s plan for a transition back to elected government.
Daily protests by the deposed leader’s backers risk undermining the interim government’s plan to return to elected civilian rule. Violence at dawn today in Tahrir, the heart of the 2011 revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak, and nearby Giza injured 19 people, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported, citing the health ministry.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. government was assessing the safety of American officials serving in Egypt. “We have taken steps and would take steps as needed if the situation warrants,” Psaki told reporters yesterday.
The U.S., which gives more than $1 billion a year to Egyptian military, hasn’t labeled the army”s July 3 removal of Mursi a coup, though it has called for a quick transition to democracy.
Embassy Security
U.S. officials, at President Barack Obama’s request, are clarifying whether Mursi’s removal was a coup, Psaki said, without offering a timetable for the review’s completion. U.S law requires ending aid to any county where the government has been toppled by a military coup. The U.S., Psaki reiterated, hasn’t “taken any side” in the country”s political standoff.
The embassy and all roads leading to it are totally secure and the government won’t let it be attacked, said Adel-Fattah Osman, assistant to the interior minister. Egyptian police had set up barriers around the compound before El-Erian spoke….
Fighting has repeatedly broken out since Mursi’s ouster, killing dozens in Cairo and other cities, mostly Brotherhood supporters. In addition to the casualties in Cairo, two people were killed and seven injured in clashes yesterday in Qalyubia, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital.
Militants have also stepped up attacks in the Sinai peninsula, killing and injuring several soldiers and policemen….
Officials have begun working on amending the constitution that Mursi pushed through a referendum last year over the objection of opponents who said it favors Islamists and infringes on basic rights.
The April 6 movement, one of the groups that campaigned for Mursi’s ouster, said it will propose a “ban on religious parties,” according to an e-mailed statement.