Egyptian President stands ground, will not cancel vote on constitution
Aides are defecting and tanks circle the palace in Cairo, but Egyptian Mohamed Morsi says he will not back down.
Morsi says he will not tolerate killings or sabotage, and says many “thugs” are organizing to create disorder across the country.
Mohammed Morsi, Egyptian President supported by the Muslim Brotherhoodphoto/Forcalgeria via wikimedia commons
Addressing the country on national television Thursday, Morsi expressed sorrow over those killed and injured in protests gripping the capital, while insisting that dialogue is the only solution to the country’s constitutional crisis. He said seven people were killed in overnight violence, with more than 700 others injured.
VOA Cairo Bureau Chief Elizabeth Arrott says the palace neighborhood has been under a siege of protests for more than 24 hours.
“It’s an upscale neighborhood, so a lot of people live there and they can’t avoid it,” she said. “It was very, very tense in the areas. They were throwing Molotov cocktails, petrol bombs and rocks and it was running street battles. They were going back and forth and of course these are where people live.”
The leader of the umbrella opposition coalition, Mohammed ElBaradei, told supporters Wednesday that he and his colleagues would not negotiate with the president until he withdraws the draft constitution and cancels a planned December 15 referendum.
Omar Ashour, who teaches political science at the University of Exeter in Britain, said that it will be difficult to bring an end to the popular protests, because the opposition is a diverse set of groups and that each has a different goal:
“The opposition is not a united entity in any way,” he said. “They have very different targets. Some have toppling the regime; some are bringing back the former regime figures in power, some are about the constitution, some are about the constitutional declaration.
“So it’s not really a united command,” he said. “No matter what [Morsi] will give, there will be some opposition on the streets.”
