Egypt Prepares to Evict Pro-Morsi Protesters

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Protesters rally outside Raba’a Al Adiwiya Mosque in Cairo on Sunday. The government planned to forcibly break up pro-Morsi encampments.

CAIRO—International mediators including U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns tried to find a solution to Egypt’s continuing political stalemate as authorities here prepared to disperse a tent city of supporters of the country’s ousted president.
As the crisis mounted over the weekend, Egypt’s army commander, who pushed aside former President Mohammed Morsi on July 3 following protests against Mr. Morsi’s rule, reached out directly to Islamist groups in what is believed to be the first such negotiations since the military coup.
The push for a compromise between Mr. Morsi’s supporters and the new military-backed government has taken on a xenophobic tone, with both sides condemning what they see as interference by foreign politicians, media and activists.
U.S. officials on Sunday said Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Robert Ford the ambassadorship to Egypt, replacing Anne Patterson. It wasn’t clear if Mr. Ford, a former ambassador to Syria, had accepted, and he couldn’t be reached for comment. In Egypt, the news that Mr. Ford had been recommended for the post sparked some negative reactions on social media.
Yet even as rhetoric against foreign interference mounts, foreign diplomats have worked feverishly behind the scenes to reconcile Mr. Morsi’s mostly Islamist supporters and the military-backed interim government.
European diplomats met with leaders of Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood over the weekend to negotiate a way out of the crisis. Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain are planning a trip to Cairo as early as this week to help with negotiations.
European and U.S. diplomats didn’t respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Separately, General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Egypt’s minister of defense, met with prominent leaders in Egypt’s Salafi Islamist movement, but he didn’t meet with members of Mr. Morsi’s far larger Muslim Brotherhood.
If the advent of negotiations injected a breath of optimism into the monthlong crisis, people close to Egypt’s civilian government said the impasse is no closer to a resolution.
Mohammed Abul Ghar, the head of the secular-leaning Social Democratic Party, said the European diplomats asked Egyptian authorities for a 48-hour reprieve to resolve the crisis.
But Mr. Ghar said the discussions have sapped the patience of Egypt’s new civilian leadership. Barring a solution, the government planned to forcibly evict pro-Morsi encampments at Raba’a Al Adiwiya and Nahda squares after the Eid holiday ends on Thursday evening, he said. Egypt’s interim prime minister is a member of the Social Democratic Party.
Negotiations with foreign diplomats were making matters worse by extending the Brotherhood’s intransigence, Mr. Ghar said. “There is no improvement, no development, no progress,” he said. “People are tired—they are saying that these [diplomats] keep coming and going and doing nothing.”

While both sides have cautiously embraced Western diplomatic efforts in meetings behind closed doors, they have publicly condemned foreign interference.
Mr. Morsi’s supporters released a statement on Saturday rejecting Mr. Burns’s entreaties and America’s foreign intervention in Egyptian affairs, complaining that the U.S. had accepted Egypt’s military coup.
Egyptian politicians have long tapped into antipathy toward foreign interference, particularly from the West. But suspicion of Westerners has expanded since July 3. Over the weekend, two interim government officials slammed the foreign media for what they called biased coverage of Mr. Morsi’s removal.
“Frankly, many of you have covered the news incorrectly and unfairly,” Nabil Fahmy, Egypt’s foreign minister, told foreign reporters in a news conference on Saturday. The chairwoman of Egypt’s National Women’s Council Friday said she was astonished by the foreign media’s bias.
Sensitivity toward foreign influence has long complicated Egypt’s transition.
Shortly after Egypt’s revolution in early 2011, the country’s military government rejected a loan from the International Monetary Fund that might have halted the depreciation of the country’s currency, the pound. Policy makers in the Ministry of Finance said at the time the military hoped to avoid the stigma attached to foreign borrowing.

The military nearly scuttled its $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid last year when it charged foreign pro-democracy workers with violating the country’s law on civil-society organizations and accused them of espionage.
—Jay Solomon contributed to this article.
Write to Matt Bradley at matt.bradley@dowjones.com
A version of this article appeared August 5, 2013, on page A6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Egypt to Evict Pro-Morsi Protesters.

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