EgyptIsolated, defiant Morsi rallies his supporters for battle as army’s ultimatum looms

Facing an ultimatum issued Monday by Egypt’s powerful army, President Mohamed Morsi, in a midnight speech, defiantly announced that he would not resign under pressure and, if necessary, protect his presidency with his life.

In response to Morsi’s speech, the military, in a posting on a military-affiliated Facebook page under the title “Final hours,” said: “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.”

The Web posting quoted Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt’s top officer, as saying “it was more honorable for us to die than to have the people of Egypt terrorized or threatened.”

The military gave Morsi until 17:00 Egypt’s time (10:00 a.m. EST) to meet the protesters’ demands – chief among them Morsi’s own resignation, If he did not meet those demands, the military would offer its own roadmap for Egypt’s future.

The standoff between Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, on the one hand, and the millions of protesters, who are supported by the army, on the other hand, raises the question of how far the military would go to assert itself.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) announced it would stick to its Monday ultimatum to Morsi, and there are no signs that Morsi’s defiant “I’m not going anywhere” speech has weakened the military’s determination.

The New York Times reports that even before the president’s speech, Egypt’s generals took control of the state’s flagship newspaper, Al Ahram, and used it to outline on Wednesday’s front page their plans to enforce a military ultimatum issued a day earlier.

Under the banner headline “Removal or Resignation,” Wednesday’s issue of Al Ahram reported that the generals would “abolish the controversial Constitution” and form a committee of experts to write a new charter, form an interim presidential council with three members led by the chief of the constitutional court, and put a military leader in charge of the executive branch as an interim prime minister.

The newspaper, citing an unidentified military official, reported that “to ensure the country’s security” the military and security services had already put some of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood allies under house arrest, and had issued orders for the arrest of “anybody who resists these decisions” for trial in special courts.

Morsi insisted his presidency was legitimate – he repeated the word “legitimacy” more than thirty times — and that any attempt to force him from power would ignite violent conflict between Islamists and their opponents.

“If the price for legitimacy is my blood, then I am prepared to sacrifice my blood to legitimacy and my homeland,” Morsi said.

The Guardian reports that analysts note that the speech was aimed to rally his Islamic supporters and prepare them for likely violence ahead, rather than placate the protesters or signal his willingness to reconcile with the demands of the military.

Morsi and his advisers must have reckoned that a threat of violent campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood and its adherents would deter the military from acting on its ultimatum, and convince the protesters that come what may, the Islamists are not going to give up the many gains they have made – and, they argue, made democratically.

“Any coup of any sort will only pass over our dead bodies,” the senior Brotherhood official Mohamed el-Beltagy said in a speech at a Brotherhood rally, calling for “families in all Egyptian governorates and villages to be prepared to take to the streets and fill squares” to support the president.

One problem for the Brotherhood is that the opposition to its conduct in its one year in power is practically universal. The Guardian notes that those calling for the end of Morsi’s presidency include an uneasy alliance of disaffected backers, as well as supporters of the former regime, many of whom were on opposite sides of a violent divide in the months after Mubarak fell.

The sheer breadth of opposition to Morsi leaves the Brotherhood with few options. The protesters and their leaders feel they are dealing from a position of strength: more than seventeen million Egyptians – from a population of eighty-five millions – signed a petition calling on Morsi to resign; the army made it clear it supported the protesters and their demand and the Ministry of the Interior yesterday said the Egyptian police would no longer offer protection to officials and buildings of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Morsi’s growing isolation was poignantly expressed by a Twitter message from the secretary of the cabinet, a cabinet which includes many former supporters of Morsi. Shortly after Morsi’s speech, his cabinet issued a statement on its official Twitter account condemning the speech. “The cabinet declares its rejection of Dr. Morsi’s speech and his pushing the country toward a civil war,” the statement declared. “The cabinet announces taking the side of the people.”