Egypt’s Morsi defiant under pressure as deadline looms

CAIRO — Sporadic bursts of automatic gunfire shut down streets in central Cairo overnight as supporters of  President Mohamed Morsi clashed violently with opposition protesters outside Cairo University, where the president’s supporters had gathered.

At least 16 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in the clashes that erupted late Tuesday night and carried into the early hours of Wednesday morning, as Morsi delivered a defiant televised speech that made clear he would not back down.

With only hours to go until the Wednesday deadline, Egypt was quickly hurtling toward a showdown between its powerful military and the Islamists, including Morsi, who swept to power in elections last year. Morsi’s backers in the Muslim Brotherhood have vowed that they will not go quietly if their president is forced out.

Waving his hands and shaking his fists in a 45-minute speech on national television late Tuesday, Morsi swore that he was committed to the democratic process that brought him to power and said that any attempts to subvert the constitution were “unacceptable.”

Morsi, while acknowledging that he had made mistakes during his year in office as Egypt’s first democratically elected president, appealed to Egyptians to give him more time to deal with the country’s problems.

The speech represented a direct challenge to the nation’s military and a signal that efforts to mediate the crisis have so far failed. Earlier on Tuesday, Morsi met with his defense minister, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, in an apparent bid to reach an accord.

Shortly after Morsi’s speech, a message was posted to an Egyptian armed forces Facebook page saying, “We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool.”

Although Sissi was appointed by Morsi, the general’s announcement Monday afternoon that he would give the president and his opponents 48 hours to resolve their differences before the military implemented its own plan for the country was seen here as a direct threat to Morsi’s hold on power. Senior Brotherhood leaders have described the statement as “a coup.”

As night fell Tuesday, gunfire crackled along the Nile as the president’s supporters and opponents came to blows in the lower-class neighborhood of Kit Kat in central Cairo and near Cairo University, where the president’s supporters had gathered.

Seven cabinet ministers have resigned in the past two days, including the foreign minister on Tuesday, according to local news media reports. A governor, a military adviser and the cabinet’s spokesman also quit their posts.

The ultraconservative Salafist Nour party, which won the
second-largest bloc in parliament, distanced itself from Morsi on Tuesday, saying that it supported the protesters’ calls for early elections.

Egyptian police officers have said they will no longer protect the president or his Muslim Brotherhood backers, and protesters have pressed in closer to the palace where Morsi is thought to be staying.

The Washington Post

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