Egypt’s military last night deposed President Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president.
They installed Adly Mansour, the head of the country’s highest court, as an interim leader, replacing Morsi, who swept into office in an election organised by the military last year after a popular uprising ousted long-standing President Hosni Mubarak.
Head of Egypt’s armed forces Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi said the military was fulfilling its “historic responsibility” to protect the country by ousting Morsi. the Western-educated Islamist leader elected a year ago. Morsi “did not achieve the goals of the people” and failed to meet demands to share power with opponents who thronged the streets of Cairo and Tahrir Square, Gen. El-Sisi said.
Those crowds erupted as the announcement was made on Egyptian television shortly after 9 p.m. Ahead of the statement, troops moved into key positions around the capital, closing off a bridge over the Nile River and surrounding a demonstration by Morsi’s supporters in a Cairo suburb.
El-Sisi said the country’s Constitution had been suspended and new parliamentary elections would be held. Mansour, the news Head of State is the head of the country’s Supreme Constitutional Court.
At the final hour, Morsi offered to form an interim coalition government “that would manage the upcoming parliamentary electoral process, and the formation of an independent committee for constitutional amendments to submit to the upcoming parliament,” he said in a posting on his Facebook page. He noted that hundreds of thousands of supporters and protesters had packed plazas around the country, and he urged that his countrymen be allowed to express their opinions through the ballot box.
“One of the mistakes I cannot accept — as the president of all Egyptians — is to side with one party over another, or to present the scene from one side only. To be fair, we need to listen to the voice of people in all squares,” the statement read.
Morsi, a U.S.-educated religious conservative, was elected president in June 2012. But his approval ratings have plummeted as his government has failed to keep order or revive Egypt’s economy. The chaos, including open sexual assaults on women in Egypt’s streets, has driven away tourists and investors, while opponents say Morsi’s rule was increasingly authoritarian.
As the troops fanned out Wednesday evening, Morsi was said to be working from a complex belonging to the country’s Republican Guard, across the street from the presidential palace, according to Egyptian state media.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United .States government — Egypt’s leading ally — could not confirm reports of a coup. Psaki said the United States is not taking sides and urged all parties to come to a peaceful resolution to the “tense and fast-moving” situation.
An aide, Essam El Haddad, said in a Facebook posting that a coup was under way and warned that the generals risked bloodshed by moving against Morsi.
“Today, only one thing matters. In this day and age, no military coup can succeed in the face of sizable popular force without considerable bloodshed,” wrote El Haddad, who works in the office of the assistant to the president on foreign relations. “Who among you is ready to shoulder that blame?”
“In a democracy, there are simple consequences for the situation we see in Egypt: The president loses the next election or his party gets penalized in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Anything else is mob rule,” he added.
But Naguib Abadeer, a member of the opposition Free Egyptians Party, said what was under way “is not by any means a military coup. This is a revolution.”
“The people have decided that Mr. Morsy was no longer the legitimate leader of Egypt,” he told CNN.
