EgyptEgypt’s military gives Morsi 48 hours to meet demonstrators’ demands – or else

Two-and-a-half years ago, as a wave of popular demonstrations against the government of President Hosni Mubarak engulfed Egypt, the Egyptian military told Mubarak that it was not going to shoot at the protesters and suppress the demonstrations, and that the only way out of the crisis would be for Mubarak to resign.

Earlier today (Monday), following days of anti-government demonstrations, which culminated Sunday with millions of Egyptians filling the streets of Egypt’s major cities, the Egyptian military issued a similar ultimatum to President Mohammed Morsi: the military gave the president forty-eight hours to respond to the demands of the protesters – chief among them that he resigned from the position of president. If Morsi failed to meet the demands of the protesters, the military said it would offer its own “roadmap for the future” of Egypt.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the military, said the massive demonstrations against Morsi were an “unprecedented” expression of the popular will.

Ahram Online published the Egyptian Army’s statement:

The Egyptian armed forces will not become involved in politics or administration; they are satisfied with their role as is spelt out in line with democratic norms …
The Egyptian armed forces have set a deadline, which ended yesterday [Sunday], for all political powers to reconcile and end the current crisis, but no progress has been made. Consequently, the Egyptian people have taken to the streets …
Wasting more time will mean more division and conflict, which is what the armed forces warned of and of which it continues to warn …
The armed forces reiterate its call that the demands of the people be met,” the statement read, according to Ahram, giving political factions a 48-hour period “as a last chance to bear the historical burden that the nation is currently facing.

The demonstrations of the last few days were the largest seen in the Arab world since the Arab Spring began in late fall 2010.

On Sunday, demonstrators in Cairo attacked and sacked the headquarters of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood. Nine demonstrators were killed, and scores injured, when members of the Brotherhood serving as guards at the compound fired live rounds into the protesters storming the building. The Telegraph reports that the Brotherhood said it used private guards because the police refused to protect the building.

In all, sixteen protesters were killed and a few hundreds injured over the weekend.

The Brotherhood holds both the presidency and a majority in parliament, winning both because of its superior organizational network and the fact that the secular, liberal opposition has been – and still is – hopelessly divided.

Haaretz reports that earlier today, four non-Brotherhood cabinet ministers resigned from the government in sympathy with the protesters.

The leaders of the protest movement issued their own ultimatum to Morsi: they said that he must resign by Tuesday at 5:00pm and call new elections – or face millions more in the streets.

Morsi has not been seen in public for four days now, but one of his aides said there were three ways forward: parliamentary elections, which he called “the most obvious”; national dialogue, which he said opponents had repeatedly rejected; and third, early presidential elections, as demanded by protesters.

The aide said that an early presidential elections would “simply [destroy] our democracy.”

Haaretz notes that the protests were an indication that the Brotherhood has not only further alienated liberals and secularists – who were always suspicious of the Brotherhood and its intentions — by trying to impose strict Islamic rule on Egypt, but has also angered millions of Egyptians with economic mismanagement which has brought Egypt to the verge of an economic collapse.

The Guardian reports that the United States and the EU have urged Morsi to share power with the opposition, saying only a national consensus can help Egypt overcome a severe economic crisis and build democratic institutions.