CAIRO: Egypt’s interim rulers welcomed yesterday remarks from the US State Department describing the rule of toppled leader Mohammed Mursi as undemocratic, read in Cairo as a signal that Washington will not cut off its $1.5bn in annual aid. In a stark illustration of the desperate state of Egypt’s economy, a former minister from Mursi’s ousted government said Egypt had less than two months’ supply left of imported wheat, revealing a far worse shortage than previously disclosed.
Meanwhile, supporters and opponents of Mursi have called rival rallies for the first Friday of Ramadan today, amid soaring tensions.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the influential group from which Morsi emerged, has vowed to keep protesting until he is reinstated.
Egypt’s premier said yesterday he does not rule out posts for the Muslim Brotherhood in his cabinet if candidates are qualified, even as police cracked down on the Islamist group.
The army’s removal of Egypt’s first freely elected leader last week, after millions took to the streets to protest against him, has left the Arab world’s most populous country polarised by divisions unseen in its modern history.
Violence between supporters of Mursi and soldiers at a military compound this week has deepened the fissures. Washington has been treading a careful line. US law bars aid to countries where a democratic government is removed in a coup. So far Washington has said it is too early to say whether the Egyptian events meet that description. Nevertheless, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday Mursi’s government “wasn’t a democratic rule”. “What I mean is what we’ve been referencing about the 22 million people who have been out there voicing their views and making clear that democracy is not just about simply winning the vote at the ballot box.”
The new US remarks were warmly received by the interim government and swiftly denounced by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said the comments reflected “understanding and realisation about the political developments that Egypt is witnessing in recent days, as embodying the will of the millions of Egyptians who took to the streets”. Brotherhood spokesman Gehad Haddad said the remarks showed American hypocrisy: “There is no way the Egyptian army would have gone through with this coup if it would not have been sanctioned by the US.”
Two and a half years of political turmoil has left Egypt on the brink of economic collapse, scaring away tourists and investors. Speaking to Reuters in a tent at a vigil by thousands of Mursi supporters, the ousted president’s supply minister, Bassem Ouda, revealed that government stocks held just 500,000 tonnes of imported wheat.
Egypt, the world’s biggest buyer, usually imports about 10 million tonnes of wheat a year, half of which is given out by the state in the form of subsidised bread sold for less than 1 US cent a loaf. The imported wheat stock figure means Egypt will need to urgently start spending a $12bn financial aid lifeline it has been given in the past two days by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, states that welcomed Mursi’s downfall. AGENCIES
