Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Egyptian Military Leader and Islamists Meet After Mediation By US Envoy William Burns

Pro-Morsi protesters in Adawiya Square, Cairo, Egypt, after being joined with more protesters from the Alf Maskan area, August 4, 2013

مسيرة حاشدة من الألف مسكن إلى رابعة تنديدًا بالانقلاب

[04-08-2013][13:39:12 مكة المكرمة]

كتب- محمد يحيى:

انطلقت مسيرة حاشدة عقب صلاة الظهر من منطقة الألف مسكن إلى ميدان رابعة العدوية؛ وذلك ضمن مليونية فعاليات اليوم "ليلة القدر" التي دعا إليها التحالف الوطني بجميع محافظات الجمهورية؛ للتنديد بالانقلاب العسكري الدموي والمذابح التي ارتكبتها الداخلية على مدار الشهر الماضي. 

وردد المتظاهرون عبر مكبرات الصوت هتافات "اثبت يا ريس، الشعب يقرر عودة الرئيس، يسقط يسقط حكم العسكر، قالوا عدالة قالوا حرية لسة الكلب وزير داخلية، حق رئيسي إعدام للسيسي، ضحكوا عليكوا وقالوا إخوان وهي الحرب على الإسلام". 

على جانبٍ آخر شهدت هذه المسيره تفاعلاً من قِبل سكان منطقه الألف مسكن الذين حرصوا على توجيه التحيةَ للمتظاهرين من شرفات العمارات وإلقاء زجاجات المياه الباردة؛ للمتظاهرين للتغلب على ارتفاع درجات الحرارة.

http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.aspx?ArtID=158902&SecID=230

 

==================================================

Egypt's military chief meets Islamists over political crisis

CAIRO, Aug. 4, 2013 (Xinhua) --

Egyptian military chief Abdul-Fattah Al-Sisi met overnight with representatives of the country's Islamic forces to discuss the current political crisis, according to an army's statement published Sunday.

During the meeting, Sisi said "the country's president and prime minister are those assigned with the tasks of running the state," army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali said in the statement published on the armed forces' Facebook page.

"The armed forces appreciate all the exerted efforts from all sides to end the sit-ins in peaceful ways," said the statement.

Sisi also stressed that there are opportunities for a peaceful solution to the crisis as long as all sides reject violence.

When meeting Abdullah Shaker, chief of the Salafist Intellectual Shura Council, preacher Mohamed Hassan and other ultra-conservative Salafist members, Sisi promised not to end the peaceful protests with violence, daily al-Masry el-Youn newspapers reported Sunday.

Hassan said his attempt for reconciliation is in coordination with the National Alliance for Supporting Legitimacy, a pro-Morsi alliance led by the deposed leader's Muslim Brotherhood.

"The Alliance members are asking for preventing bloodshed, not ending the protests by force, and releasing those detained after June 30," he reiterated.

"The national reconciliation is very important," Hassan said, adding that he will meet and convince the members of the alliance to join the dialogue.

Morsi's supporters have been holding sit-ins for over a month at Rabaa Al Adawiya square in Cairo's Nasr City and al-Nahda square in Giza, demanding the reinstatement of their legitimate president.

The Interior Ministry called again on Saturday for ending the sit-ins, promising "safe exit" for Morsi's loyalists.

Editor: Fang Yang

 

Egypt's Sisi denies intention to run for president

CAIRO, Aug. 3, 2013 (Xinhua) --

Egyptian military chief, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, denied interest in running for president after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, he told the Washington Post in an interview in Cairo that has been published Saturday.

The Post said that although Sisi, Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, denied intention to run for Egypt's president, he still "did not rule it out."

The military chief also lashed out at the administration of U.S. Barack Obama, accusing it of "disregarding the Egyptian popular will and providing insufficient support amid threat of a civil war, " said the Washington Post, referring to U.S. support for the Muslim Brotherhood group of the deposed president.

Sisi expressed "deep disappointment" that the United States has not been more eager to embrace his rationale. "Now you want to continue turning your backs on Egyptians?" he wondered, addressing Obama's administration.

Washington has recently halted a sale of four F-16 jet fighters to Egypt which has been seen as "penalizing the military" according to the Post.

The interview was published by the post on Saturday while Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is in the middle of a visit to Cairo to meet with Egyptian leaders over the recent developments in the chaos-stricken country.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

==========================

U.S. diplomat meets Egyptian leaders, Morsi's allies over crisis

CAIRO, Aug. 3, 2013 (Xinhua) --

Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns held talks here Saturday with top Egyptian leaders and loyalists to ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi over recent developments in the turmoil-stricken country.

"The future of Egypt is only determined by its people without any foreign interference," said Burns at a joint press conference after meeting with Egypt's interim Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy in the capital Cairo.

He added that he came to listen to the Egyptian government and different political forces, to provide possible aid that could end a state of polarization and division and work on convincing concerned parties to stop all forms of violence to reach comprehensive reconciliation.

Fahmy said Egypt welcomes all foreign delegations to listen to their views, but the final decision can only be determined by the people and the government representing the state's supreme interests, national security and efforts to combat terrorism and violence.

After meeting with interim President Adli Mansour, Burns, along with EU special envoy Bernardino Leon, met with Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt's vice-president in charge of foreign relations.

"A solution to the current political crisis should be achieved without violence and within the framework of the constitution and the law," state-run news agency MENA quoted ElBaradei as saying.

Later on, Burns met at a hotel with a delegation of the National Alliance for Supporting Legitimacy, a pro-Morsi alliance led by the deposed leader's Muslim Brotherhood, but he has not yet made any statement after the meeting.

The U.S. senior diplomat has decided to extend his visit to Sunday to meet with Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted Morsi in early July, as well as interim Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, MENA quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

The source added that Burns is also likely to meet with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who is currently on a visit to Egypt.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

U.S., Arab nations working to bring Egypt parties together: Kerry

By Lesley Wroughton

Fri Aug 2, 2013, 2:09pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) -

The United States and other nations are working to bring Egypt's interim government and the Muslim Brotherhood together to find a peaceful resolution to the current crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday.

"Egypt needs to get back to a new normal, it needs to restore stability, to be able to attract business and put people to work," Kerry said before a meeting with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in London.

"We will work very very hard together with others, in order to bring parties together to find a peaceful resolution that grows the democracy and respects the rights of everybody."

Concerned about more bloodshed in Egypt, the United States, European and Arab states are trying to bring the sides together, relying on the United Arab Emirates to work with the interim government and Qatar to liaise with the Muslim Brotherhood.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has made several visits to Egypt in the last month to speak to both sides. She is one of the few outsiders to visit deposed president Mohamed Mursi, who is being held in a secret detention facility.

Kerry's No. 2, William Burns, was headed to Cairo on Friday for talks in his second visit in less than a month.

It is unclear whether he will meet with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who criticized Kerry for saying that the Egypt's military had been "restoring democracy" when it toppled Mursi. Washington has avoided calling his removal a coup.

"The UAE, with the United States and others, is doing its very best to give this government the support it needs, but also to encourage all the other parties to reach a position where it can negotiate with this government - here I'm talking about the previous government," the UAE's Sheikh Abdullah said.

"We don't want to see anybody stopping Egypt from the way it should go, but that is only going to happen by all parties being in inclusive dialogue," he said. "I think here the UAE and the United States do agree."

In his strongest support yet for Egypt's new leadership, Kerry told a Pakistani television station that the military was restoring democracy when it ousted Mursi on July 3.

"The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descent into chaos, into violence," Kerry told GEO TV.

"And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so - so far."

It is unclear whether a deal to bring Egypt's parties together would include Mursi. Ashton denied carrying an offer to the deposed leader that would ensure his safe exit if he were to renounce his claim to the presidency.

Many have suggested that such an arrangement could be part of a deal that would allow the Brotherhood to leave the streets and join a quasi-government in Egypt. It would, however, require Mursi to abandon his historic mandate as Egypt's first freely-elected leader.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)