Egypt’s army has denied its ultimatum to feuding politicians to resolve the country’s deadly crisis within 48 hours amounts to a coup. It said earlier it would offer a “road map” for peace if Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his opponents failed to heed “the will of the people”.
Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as protesters interpreted the ultimatum as spelling the end of Morsi’s rule. On Sunday millions rallied nationwide, urging the president to quit.
Large protests continued on Monday, and eight people died as activists stormed and ransacked the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which the president belongs.
He became Egypt’s first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
In an announcement read out on Egyptian TV, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, defence minister and head of the armed forces, described the protests as an “unprecedented” expression of the popular will.
If the people’s demands were not met, he said, the military would have to take responsibility for a plan for the future.
But while he said the army would not get involved in politics or government, his words were seen by many as a coup in the making.