CAIRO: Egypt’s cabinet yesterday ordered a police crackdown on protests by ousted president Mohammed Mursi’s loyalists, as European envoys headed for Cairo to try to ease tensions between the army-installed government and Islamists.
The order to the interior minister raised the prospect of a dangerous showdown just days after 82 people were killed at a pro-Mursi protest in Cairo.
It came as diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful way out of Egypt’s crisis gathered pace, with the EU and Germany sending envoys to urge a peaceful resolution to the standoff.
Adding to the tensions, judicial sources said prosecutors had referred the Muslim Brotherhood’s fugitive supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, to trial for allegedly inciting the killing of protesters. AFP
