Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi take part in a protest against the military rule in the southern suburb of Maadi, on the outskirts of Cairo, yesterday.
CAIRO: US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Egypt a day before deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi goes on trial, the next likely flashpoint in the struggle between his Muslim Brotherhood and the army-backed interim government.
Several hundred Islamists protested in a few cities yesterday, responding to a call from a pro-Mursi alliance for daily protests until the ousted president stands trial on Monday.
In Alexandria, seven people were wounded after residents clashed with Mursi supporters before security forces intervened, a security official said. Forty-five Mursi supporters were arrested. Fighting also erupted in the Gisr Al Suez district of Cairo.
Ties between Washington and strategic ally Cairo have deteriorated since the overthrow of Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president. The state news agency said Kerry’s visit to Egypt, the first since Mursi’s fall, would only last several hours.
A mass uprising which toppled authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak, a longtime US ally, in February 2011 had raised hopes that military men would no longer dominate Egypt.
But the man who removed Mursi, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has become a wildly popular figure and many Egyptians have turned against the Brotherhood and anyone perceived as its supporter, including the United States. State-run newspapers often carry conspiracy theories which suggest Washington backed the Brotherhood to ensure US domination of Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.
Those dynamics could make it difficult for Washington to lobby successfully for democracy in Egypt. In a sign of the tension, the United States said on October 9 it would withhold deliveries of tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters and missiles, as well as $260m in cash aid to Egypt, pending progress on democracy and human rights.
Reuters
