Mediating Mission Failed In Egypt

Mediating Mission Failed In Egypt
22/08/2013
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Eid al-Fitr, the great date for Muslims all over the world, coincided with completion of the mediating mission to Egypt this year. The mission’s task was to try to find a political decision for the great and dangerous crysis today’s Egypt authorities are involved after the military coup and putting down the legally elected President Muhammad Morsi.

This attempt to find a political solution to prevent crisis escalation in Egypt is in fact a speaking proof of success and effectiveness of the Egypt Nation’s heroic struggle for their rights and honour, as well as for putting down the putschists and returning the legally elected President to power as such.


Just before the mediating delegation came to Egypt todays Minister of Defence and “main putschist” Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi tried to make a kind of overturn among the Muslim Brotherhood on his own to find out the earthy range of compromise for solving today’s crisis and at the same time gain as many points as possible for a positive public image of a sort of peacemaker.


As reported by the Armed Forces of Egypt press-secretary, al-Sisi “... met some representatives of the islamist movement … and underlined that there is a possibility of overcoming the crisis without applying violence from any side”ю The Morsi supporters, however, insist on his return to power. In their statement of August 3 the Freedom and Justice Party which is a Muslim Brotherhood political wing the terms of crisis solution by the means of politics are announced. “We welcome the political solution of the existing situation as long as it is based on the Constitution and rejects the coup”, the document says. The Morsi supporters had informed the US deputy Secretary of State William Joseph Burns that they would not accept any other solution of the crisis than restoring Morsi in his position and power.


On Monday, August 4, two Ministers of Foreign Affairs (from Qatar and UAE) and the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for the Southern Mediterranean Bernardino Leon. The above-listed group met Khairat al-Shater, the “person No. 2” in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy, who was put to the famous prison of Tora. Al-Shater, however, replied worthily, “don’t waste your time here with me while Egypt has legal President, whose name is Muhammad Morsi”.


The mediating mission fail in Cairo was rather predictable. On Wednesday, August 6, the United States Secretary of State John Forbes Kerry and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union Catherine Ashton published a joint statement. "While further violent confrontations have thus far been avoided," the joint statement said "we remain concerned and troubled that government and opposition leaders have not yet found a way to break a dangerous stalemate and agree to implement tangible confidence building measures. This remains a very fragile situation, which holds not only the risk of more bloodshed and polarization in Egypt, but also impedes the economic recovery which is so essential for Egypt's successful transition".


By so doing everything should be neat and formal if two famous american senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham didn’t come to Egypt almost at the same time with the mediation team.


Their analysis of the situation and the Egyptian authorities’ reaction for it were quite remarkable.


“My God, I didn’t realise how bad things are here before. Those people are only days or weeks away from the bloodshed”, McCain said in his interview for the Ametican TV-Channel CBS News Network in Cairo. “The people who are now in charge of the government were not elected. The people who were elected are now in jail,” Graham said, addressing Egyptian reporters. “The status quo is unacceptable. Do you all agree with that? You live here.”


The 32nd minute of their press-conference was also highly-publicised. "We have said we share the democratic aspirations and criticism of the Morsi government that led millions of Egyptians into the streets," McCain said at the end of a brief visit to Cairo in which he and fellow Republican senator Lindsey Graham met senior officials. "We've also said that the circumstances of [Morsi's] removal was a coup. This was a transition of power not by the ballot box.” He also explained why he called that a coup: “if something walks like a duck and quack like a duck - this indeed is a duck”.


These statements by the respectable American Senators outraged the authorities of Egypt and their liable Media, namely the “Al-Ahram” newspaper. Egypt’s acting president Adli Mansour named the congressman's statement “an unacceptable intrusion into Egypt’s interior”.


Such nervous reaction speaks of the present authorities regarding the US senators’ statements bears evidence of their angst and perplexity. They are afraid that those opinions will influence the Washington official position on the issue. In Washington, however, the state department's Jen Psaki said: "Senators McCain and Graham are certainly entitled to their opinions … The US government has stated what our opinion is." Ms. Psaki refused to comment those statements.


During the whole first of the three Eid festive days the President Morsi supporters held mass peaceful demonstrations all over the country. The present authorities, scared of this unheard scope, stated that the protesters are armed and agressive - but the Holy Qur’an is the protesters’ only “weapon”. Nevertheless, the junta is afraid even of those armless peaceful protesters, is they feel those people’s determination to stand for their choice until the President Morsi is restored in his power.



Dr.Vyacheslav Shved, leading researcher of the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine,
Director of the Dept. of Near East Affairs at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies,
Vice-President of the “Ukrainian Centre For Islamic Studies” NGO

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