Egyptian Military Gives Ultimatum to Morsi Government
BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Flying in to show their support, Egypt's military gives the government an ultimatum to meet the demands of the people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just is unbearable I know for many of you, but it is unbearable also for me.</s>ANDERSON: Mourning the loss of 19 firefighters, how a blaze in Arizona turned so deadly. And reunited after a harrowing ordeal, a story of courage and hope coming up.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.</s>ANDERSON: Critical hours ahead for Egypt's fragile democracy as the military there warns it could step in to resolve a political crisis. President Mohamed Morsi met with top military leaders a short time ago. We don't yet know what happened in that meeting, but we are expecting to hear very soon from a presidential spokesperson. Well, a military demanding the government and all political forces respect the will of the people. Now these are pictures of Tahrir Square where protesters once again are demanding President Morsi step down. The crowds earlier cheered this ultimatum by the military.</s>ABDEL FATTAH AL-SISI, HEAD OF EGYPTIAN ARMED FORCES (through translator): The armed forces repeat their call for the people's demand to be met and gives everyone 48 hours as a final chance to shoulder the burden of a historic moment in our country which will not forgive any party that will be negligent in bearing their responsibility.</s>ANDERSON: Well, let's go to Cairo now for the very latest for you. Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joining us live. Huge, huge crowds in Tahrir Square. Much smaller, but significant demonstrations also for the government, of course, outside their offices in a different part of Cairo. Ben, we heard from the military today. We heard what they say. What is their intent at this point?</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, their intent really is to lay down the law, to read the riot act, so to speak, to the opposition. But more clearly, to President Mohamed Morsi that the people of Egypt have made their voice clear. We've seen three nights in a row now of huge demonstrations not just in Cairo, but in Alexandria and other Egyptian cities. The message to President Morsi is you've got to make moves to end this current crisis. Analysts will tell you that there's really three things that he needs to do. And he needs to reshuffle his cabinet to bring in members of the opposition and to reduce the level of participation in the government by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. He needs to call for early presidential and parliamentary elections. These are some serious demands on a president who just a year ago won in Egypt's first ever free and fair presidential election. So they're really throwing down the gauntlet to Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, to which the group that he belongs to has said that they will consider the army's statements. The army is probably expecting a somewhat more forthright response to their demand. The opposition is meeting this evening to consider it as well. But if they cannot come to some sort of agreement, then we very well could see within now less than 48 hours, the army taking over Egypt again - - Becky.</s>ANDERSON: We are talking about a military takeover, effectively, within 48 hours, right? Are we correct in saying that? Because they didn't make it clear themselves, did they?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, no. In fact, in the military statement that was issued today, they stressed that the military wants to stay out of politics and conduct its normal role to defend the nation. But they also said that if the politicians within 48 hours can't come up with some sort of consensus in how to run this country, they have -- the military has a long- term roadmap for the country. Does that mean a permanent military takeover? No. But it probably means a blueprint for brief sort -- military control of the country leading to elections somewhere down the line. But definitely it does feel like we're going back to the 12th of February, 2011 when Egypt woke up and found the military, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, was running the country.</s>ANDERSON: Ben, I know that there was huge support from the crowd in Tahrir Square earlier today when the military made this announcement. Should we, then, expect that most Egyptians, particularly those who are anti-Morsi, would support a military takeover despite what they've been through in the past?</s>WEDEMAN: Well, really it depends who you speak with. For many Egyptians who aren't so interested in democracy as much as law and order, a functioning economy, a fuel that's not in short supply, and are tired of long and frequent power cuts, they want a government -- doesn't matter whether they wear military uniforms or not -- that can get the country back on its feet, get the economy running again, encourage tourists to return to this country, because at the moment there are so many loose ends that democracy and freedom for many Egyptians isn't as important as a salary -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Fascinating. Important times, extremely important times in Egypt today this hour. Ben Wedeman above Tahrir Square. And as you can see, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people there in the square tonight. We have to add that there have been smaller, pro-President Morsi demonstrations today as well. Ben, thank you for that. All right, this hour we're going to hear from a prominent blogger and a protester who says President Morsi must step aside. Right now, though, we're joined by Mohamad Elmasry who is a professor at the American University in Cairo. I know that you have made statements in the past which would be deemed to be supportive of the Morsi government. Tonight, do you expect President Morsi to heed the words of the military, or are we looking at effectively a coup within 48 hours?</s>MOHAMAD ELMASRY, PROESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO: Well, what I have been writing about for the last seven months is my support for institutional democracy, which I think is the way forward for Egypt. We'll have to wait and see what's going to happen over the next day or two, but it does look like this is a military coup of a democratically elected government and we should be clear that this is the product of 12 months of very hard work by various forces -- Mubarak regime remnants, corrupt elements within the state structure, and importantly elements of Egypt's liberal secular opposition, which as Ben Wedeman was just saying many of them don't particularly care about democracy.</s>ANDERSON: Hang on a minute, let's be clear, because we've got hundreds of thousands, as far as we can tell, people in Tahrir Square tonight. You're well aware that these anti-government demonstrators for some time now have said a constitution has been written which is simply unfair. It wasn't what people have voted for. They want to see the end of this president. They want to see parliamentary elections, presidential elections. They want to see the end of this president. That's -- whoever is agitating for their own benefit, it is clear that millions of Egyptians do not agree with the way that this constitution is written, correct?</s>ELMASRY: Well, let me just say a couple of things. First of all, the (inaudible) that the secular liberal opposition, many of them, many of the elements within it are anti-democratic and exclusionist is overwhelming. This is an opposition that was cheerleading when the first democratically elected parliament in Egypt's modern history was disbanded. These are the same people that after the presidential elections last year refused to accept the results essentially. Two of the candidates -- and interestingly two of the leaders of the...</s>ANDERSON: Who are you talking about? Name them?</s>ELMASRY: Hamdi Selblahy (ph) and Amr Moussa in June of 2012, right after the first round results came in, they said we want -- we call upon -- or we call for early presidential elections. They wanted a do over. And this -- I cite this in my article that I just published in Jadaliyya, and you can go look it up, and I have sources, and you can link to the news stories that talk about this. And they've admitted it. I mean, it's not secret. Mohamed ElBaradei has said as recently as a couple of months ago on CBC that he would rather see a military -- the military rule the country than a democratically elected islamist government. Most recently -- and to me, most damning -- I just want to get this in, this -- the liberal secular -- and this is to me is almost laughable, they have allied themselves with elements of the Mubarak regime. This has been known for months, but now recently they've come out and acknowledged it and admitted it. So this could be the first time in history, I'm not a historian, but where a regime is ousted, a dictatorship is removed from power via mass popular protests and then so-called revolutionaries ally themselves with this regime to oust a democratically elected president.</s>ANDERSON: OK. You've made your point. Let me just get our viewers aligned from Reuters, which is just crossed as you were speaking. The army, the Egyptian army rejecting the idea that they are staging a coup. Obviously eluding to the fact that they've given the president 48 hours at this point to get his house in order. A number of points that they want a new presidential elections, new parliamentary elections, et cetera. But at this point, certainly the army suggesting that there is no coup in the works. But listen, you know, you've made your point. You've made your point about what you call this secular liberal opposition. There is a problem with an opposition which is fractured, isn't there, in Egypt. But you also have to admit that there is a huge opposition to the president and the way that the Muslim Brotherhood is running the country. You have to accept that.</s>ELMASRY: Absolutely. Look, if you want to have a few minutes on the mistakes that President Morsi has made, we can do that. I've criticized his policies that he's implemented...</s>ANDERSON: So what's the answer. Let's move it on, what's the answer here?</s>ELMASRY: Well, the -- well, this is going to be a -- it's a very difficult scenario, because you have an anti-democratic military coup in operation regardless of what this...</s>ANDERSON: Well, the army says that that's not true.</s>ELMASRY: Well, well -- I mean, I read the statement it's pretty clear. I mean, when you -- imagine if the shoe were on the other foot. Imagine if a liberal president had come to power in Egypt and for 12 months the Muslim Brotherhood had organized mass protests. There were 7,000 protests last year. There were strikes in almost every industry. The police went on strike, which is illegal. If that -- imagine if the Brotherhood had gone around burning down offices. We have 36 -- excuse me 32 Muslim Brotherhood offices burned down. We have mass casualties in the Brotherhood camp. If the shoe were on the other foot, everyone would be screaming terrorism, anti-democracy. I think we need to call a spade a spade. The Muslim Brotherhood has made plenty of mistakes, but in medicine they talk about triaging. When you go -- if somebody goes into the emergency room with a gunshot wound to the chest and a broken arm, the doctors treat the gunshot wound to the chest, not the broken arm. The Brotherhood might be a broken arm with their mistakes, but the secular liberal opposition and Mubarak regime supporters and the anti-democrats within Egyptian society -- and many of the -- and I have to point out that some of the opposition is legitimately upset with things that Morsi and the Brotherhood have done. But to me, this anti-democratic -- anti-democratic tendency within these circles, that is the gunshot wound to the democratic chest, if you will, of Egypt. And that's the major concern, because there's no way forward for Egypt without institutional democracy, at least in my estimation.</s>ANDERSON: On Skype for you tonight, Mohamad ElMasry, the first of one of many voices this hour discussing what is a critical time for Egypt today following Egypt's army giving the country's rival parties 48 hours to resolve a deadly political crisis. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. As we move through this hour, you will see live pictures of Tahrir Square on your screens as we get them. We are just hearing that the Muslim Brotherhood itself has said that they will delay until tomorrow, now, a press conference, a news conference that we were anticipating within the hour. What we do believe is happened is that President Morsi and the military have spoken in the past couple of hours following Egypt's army decision to give just 48 hours to rival factions there to resolve this crisis. On the wires tonight at least, the Reuters flash that the army has denied that that would be, effectively, a military coup. But that is the speculation this hour. Our top story, huge crowds in Tahrir Square as anti-government protesters welcomed that decision earlier Monday by Egypt's army to give rival political parties 48 hours. What is an escalating crisis we are staying on this hour, voices from all sides of the divide. And analysis with our regular contributor Fawaz Gerges at the bottom of this hour. We have to take a very short break at this point, though. You're watching Connect the World live from London. 16 minutes past 9:00. Tonight, after a week of laying low, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden makes his next move. And Russia's president responds. Outrage in Europe of reports U.S. surveillance programs may have targeted EU allies. And the U.S. president and the first lady land in Tanzania. More on what is a whirlwind African tour right here on CNN. You're 90 seconds away. Taking a very short break. Stay with us.