CAIRO — The Egyptian army’s elite Republican Guard deployed with tanks around the presidential palace overnight following clashes between supporters of President Mohamed Morsi and opposition protesters in which six people died.
The Republican Guard, whose job includes protecting the president, ordered demonstrators away from the perimeter of the palace, after more scuffles broke out Thursday mornining
Supporters and opponents of Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi fought with rocks, firebombs and sticks outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday.
Images from around the world: Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe.
For a moment, Cairo seemed to be holding its breath. Though many demonstrators had left the wealthy neighborhood around the presidential palace by early afternoon, the most hardened remained in streets now strewn with broken glass and rocks and lined with smashed cars.
In one area near the palace was a small tented camp of Morsi’s Islamist supporters. Several blocks away, Morsi’s non-Islamist opponents were gathering in a square, with more were reportedly marching through the streets to join them.
Morsi was expected to address the nation later Thursday, according to a Twitter feed associated with his backers in the Muslim Brotherhood.
Wednesday’s violence was the fiercest of the country’s two-week-old political crisis, with demonstrators pelting each other with stones and molotov cocktails and wielding sticks and clubs, significantly intensifying the pressure on Egypt’s embattled new government.
Three of Morsi’s advisers resigned Wednesday evening over the conflict, which has pitted Egypt’s first democratically elected president and his Islamist backers against a broad coalition of liberals, secularists, human rights activists and loyalists to the old regime. Each side accused the other of stoking the violence outside the palace, which health ministry officials said left six dead and more than 400 people injured.
Clashes also broke out Wednesday night near the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is closely allied with Morsi, and in several other major northern cities. Prime Minister Hesham Kandil called on both sides to restore calm.
The opposition is demanding that Morsi rescind a Nov. 22 decree that granted him sweeping powers to legislate without oversight and that he abandon a contentious draft constitution that he has pushed toward a national referendum next week. A disparate group of opposition leaders vowed Wednesday to widen their protest until Morsi backs down.
But Vice President Mahmoud Mekki said the protesters would not derail the referendum. “No political faction can think that they alone monopolize the opinion and have the majority,” he said at a Wednesday news conference. “The judge is the ballot box.”
The United States has refused to criticize Morsi publicly since the crisis began. But U.S. officials said Wednesday that they are working behind the scenes to persuade his government to meet with opposition forces to discuss the draft constitution, which critics say does not protect the rights of women, minorities or the press.
“We call on all stakeholders in Egypt to settle their differences through democratic dialogue, and we call on Egypt’s leaders to ensure that the outcome protects the democratic promise of the revolution for all of Egypt’s citizens,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-egypt-protests-turn-violent-as-political-crisis-intensifies/2012/12/06/b176f912-3f76-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html
I see nothing but providence in this lasting bond between Mubarak's boys and Egypt's revolutionary reactionaries.
what i like about this article is that it quotes a person from the swp's egypt section as saying "We are all united against Mursi” but it doesn't note that this group supported morsi's election, only subtly implying it was justified because he had a mass base among the poor.
getfiscal posted:article: http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=30108
what i like about this article is that it quotes a person from the swp's egypt section as saying "We are all united against Mursi” but it doesn't note that this group supported morsi's election, only subtly implying it was justified because he had a mass base among the poor.
mursi accepted an imf loan and wants to maintain peace with israel
but wsws is of course critical of him, i guess that alone is reason enough to support him
Edited by mustang19 ()
HenryKrinkle posted:the Muslim Brotherhood is a bourgeoisie Islamist movement that prefers free market economics and has a history of occasional US-backing. the protesters are most likely a mix of USAID/NED-funded liberals and leftists, some of which may have genuinely revolutionary--or at least nationalist--goals.
100% of mb's opponents are literally trotskyists, what is the alternative? at least his rule raises the possibility of political instability in egypt.
i read the latest economist (i read the economist) and they're mildly condemning mursi while claiming that he wants a stable democracy. when wsws and economist oppose the same person makes you want to disagree.
tpaine posted:whatt is trotskyism
its the dance that psy does
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/06/muslim_brotherhood_helping_cia_funnel_arms_to_anti-assad_rebels_in_syria.html
plus cia/mb ofc
In the CIA's defense, you use the networks that are in place rather than trying to create your own conduits for arms. It's cheaper, and more reliable to tap into the Muslim Brotherhood's arms smuggling operation than starting from scratch.
I just hope that our spooks are not asking the Muslim Brotherhood which rebel groups aren't extremist Islamists.
New York Times:
The weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria's Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the officials said.
The C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it has also acknowledged that Syria's neighbors would do so.
The clandestine intelligence-gathering effort is the most detailed known instance of the limited American support for the military campaign against the Syrian government. It is also part of Washington's attempt to increase the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who has recently escalated his government's deadly crackdown on civilians and the militias battling his rule. With Russia blocking more aggressive steps against the Assad government, the United States and its allies have instead turned to diplomacy and aiding allied efforts to arm the rebels to force Mr. Assad from power.
By helping to vet rebel groups, American intelligence operatives in Turkey hope to learn more about a growing, changing opposition network inside of Syria and to establish new ties. "C.I.A. officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people," said one Arab intelligence official who is briefed regularly by American counterparts.
The civilian opposition - the Syrian National Council - is about 70% Muslim Brotherhood, which is why a lot of secular-oriented Syrians have either refused to join, or resigned in disgust. There's no need to wonder where these arms are going to end up; one way or another, the Brotherhood will probably control any post-Assad Syria and thus, any arms given to rebel forces will likely end up in their hands.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/06/muslim_brotherhood_helping_cia_funnel_arms_to_anti-assad_rebels_in_syria.html#ixzz2EIa4fLmd
mustang19 posted:HenryKrinkle posted:the Muslim Brotherhood is a bourgeoisie Islamist movement that prefers free market economics and has a history of occasional US-backing. the protesters are most likely a mix of USAID/NED-funded liberals and leftists, some of which may have genuinely revolutionary--or at least nationalist--goals.
100% of mb's opponents are literally trotskyists, what is the alternative? at least his rule raises the possibility of political instability in egypt.
i read the latest economist (i read the economist) and they're mildly condemning mursi while claiming that he wants a stable democracy. when wsws and economist oppose the same person makes you want to disagree.
Yea but unlike in Libya/Syria you're not gonna have Israel/Iran/Turkey/CIA to back the "popular" insurrection.
wasted posted:mustang19 posted:HenryKrinkle posted:the Muslim Brotherhood is a bourgeoisie Islamist movement that prefers free market economics and has a history of occasional US-backing. the protesters are most likely a mix of USAID/NED-funded liberals and leftists, some of which may have genuinely revolutionary--or at least nationalist--goals.
100% of mb's opponents are literally trotskyists, what is the alternative? at least his rule raises the possibility of political instability in egypt.
i read the latest economist (i read the economist) and they're mildly condemning mursi while claiming that he wants a stable democracy. when wsws and economist oppose the same person makes you want to disagree.Yea but unlike in Libya/Syria you're not gonna have Israel/Iran/Turkey/CIA to back the "popular" insurrection.
but they probably already are. although yes egypt was a good example of a real popular insurrection because millions of people showed up on the streets and overthrew the government without much help.
alright, im going to flop like a fish and turn solidly against mursi now. not only is there the aforementioned, but mursi is formerly part of the freedom and justice party, which is a GOP-style religious conservative/economic liberal party. he's a useless "revolutionary", op must have been sarcastic. i hope a palace storming coup comes out of this, or at least an insurgency.
ggw posted:egypt needs more islam imo
egypt needs more slam
the Free Derry of Egypt throws out its mayor and declares independence from the MB government
also i've heard rumors that the protestors have broken the army cordon and are poised to storm the presidential palace, trying to confirm
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military on Saturday urged rival political forces to solve their disputes via dialogue and said the opposite would drag the country into a "dark tunnel", which it would not allow.
A statement by the military spokesman read on state media made no mention of President Mohamed Mursi, but said a solution to the political crisis roiling the most populous Arab nation should not contradict "legitimacy and the rules of democracy".
Egypt has plunged ever deeper into crisis since Mursi, who was freely elected in June, decreed himself wide powers on November 22 and pushed ahead with plans for a referendum next Saturday on a constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly.
The army's duty was to protect national interests and secure vital state institutions, the military said. Egyptians could express their views "far from all displays of violence".
The statement, the army's most direct remarks so far on the political confrontation between the Islamist president and his liberal opponents, was issued while protesters were still camped out by the gates of the presidential palace.
But it did not appear to indicate that the army, which ran Egypt for months after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow last year, was planning to retake control of the country or its turbulent streets.
A military source said the statement did not signal any plan for a intervention in politics or a broad role on the streets.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood official welcomed the army's remarks as "balanced" and neutral. Former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, now an opposition leader, said the army was simply responding to an "enormously dangerous situation".
The military was the power behind all previous presidents and an army council temporarily took over after Mubarak's fall. However, Mursi pushed the generals aside in August and they had shown little appetite to intervene in Egypt's latest crisis.
"DARK TUNNEL"
"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," the statement said. "The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."
The state-run daily al-Ahram earlier reported that Mursi would soon authorize the military to help police keep order and give it powers of arrest under a decree approved by the cabinet. It did not say when the decree would be issued.
The instability in Egypt worries the West, especially the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since it made peace with Israel in 1979.
The tens of thousands of Mursi foes who surged past tanks and barbed wire to reach the palace gates on Friday night had dispersed, but a hard core stayed overnight in a score of tents.
Some had spray-painted "Down with Mursi" on tanks of the elite Republican Guard posted there after clashes between rival groups killed at least seven people and wounded 350 this week.
Others draped the tanks with posters of Mursi and the word "Leave" scored across his face in red letters.
"We are no longer calling for scrapping the decree and delaying the referendum," Samir Fayez, a Christian protester at the palace, said. "We have one demand in five letters: leave."
Nearby, a Mursi supporter named Mohamed Hassan was quietly observing the scene. He suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist allies could easily overwhelm their foes if they chose to do mobilize their base.
"The Brotherhood and Salafis by themselves are few but they have millions of supporters who are at home and haven't taken it to the streets yet," murmured the 40-year-old engineer.
"HATE US, BUT TALK"
The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, denounced opposition protests that have swirled around the walls of the Mursi's palace, saying they "ruin legitimacy".
Badie said eight people, all of them Brotherhood members, had been killed this week and urged the interior minister to explain why police had failed to prevent assailants from torching the organization's headquarters and 28 other offices.
"Get angry with the Brotherhood and hate us as much as you like, but be reasonable and preserve Egypt's unity," he told a news conference. "We hope everyone gets back to dialogue."
The turmoil has exposed deep divisions over the destiny of a country of 83 million where the removal of Mubarak 22 months ago led to a messy army-led transition, with the Brotherhood and its allies winning two elections.
The well-organized Brotherhood, which pushed Mursi from obscurity to power, remains his surest source of support, with over 80 years of religious and political struggle behind it.
Mursi was to host a "national dialogue" later on Saturday to chart a way forward, but opposition leaders have vowed to stay away unless he cancels his decree and defers the referendum.
Late on Friday, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil urged political forces to take "courageous and constructive steps" by calling off protests and joining the dialogue without preconditions.
Mursi's vice president has floated the possibility that the December 15 vote on a constitution opposed by liberals, leftists, Christians and others might be delayed. But the concession would fall far short of meeting all the opposition's demands.
While the main opposition coalition is boycotting, Mursi's dialogue might be joined by some senior judges or politicians such as Ayman Nour, who was trounced when he ran for president in 2005, the only multi-candidate race of the Mubarak era.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Omar Fahmy and Yasmine Saleh; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
mustang19 posted:but at the same time im really wary of mursi because he said that assad is a bad guy
lmbo
Lessons posted:are people here still mtwists or something. why not find a new gimmick?
i hope not