What comes next in Egypt?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Morsy ousted after rejecting army ultimatum to resolve the crisis within 48 hours
- Christiane Amanpour: "There's very little you can call it other than a coup"
- Some analysts are warning of a potential extremist backlash against recent events
- Ben Wedeman: "There's not going to be that quiet after the storm this time around"
(CNN) -- After days of mass demonstrations, Egypt's
military finally ousted Mohamed Morsy, the country's first
democratically elected president, in the country's second revolution in
two years.
Morsy, a Western-educated
Islamist aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, had rejected an
ultimatum delivered by the military to resolve the crisis within 48
hours, creating a stand-off with the military, the most powerful
institution in the country. In a televised speech to the nation, Egypt's
top military officer, Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, said Morsy "did not
achieve the goals of the people" during his single year in office.
Who runs Egypt now?
El-Sisi said that Adly
Mansour, head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court, will
replace Morsy as Egypt's interim president. Mansour is expected to be
sworn in on Thursday. The road map announced by El-Sisi also includes
suspending and rewriting the constitution introduced after former
dictator Hosni Mubarak's ouster, and holding new parliamentary and
presidential elections at a later, unspecified date.
Who is Adly Mansour?
The 67-year-old judge
only became the head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court on Monday,
and was named as the country's new interim president just two days
later. He was appointed vice president of the court in 1992, serving
during Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule. CNN's chief international
correspondent Christiane Amanpour said that, according to one former
military official, Mansour could serve between 9 to 12 months in an
interim role.
Egypt: Battle over word 'coup'
Muslim Brotherhood: Protests won't stop
'Morsy called military's bluff'
Obama: Return to civilian rule
How have the Egyptian people reacted?
The news has been met
with jubilation and fireworks in Tahrir Square in central Cairo, where
hundreds of thousands had turned out in recent days demanding Morsy
leave office. Their complaints ranged from concerns about the Muslim
Brotherhood's Islamic agenda being brought to bear on the nation's laws,
to frustration with his government's failure to address high
unemployment, crime and living costs.
But Morsy, who was
elected as president with 52% of the vote last year, retains a
substantial support base, which has congregated at rallies in places
like Nasr City in Cairo. The pro-Morsy camp has decried the army's move
as an illegitimate coup and refused to accept its validity, while Morsy
himself has declared that he is still president.
CNN senior international
correspondent Ben Wedeman, a former Cairo bureau chief who has been
covering the crisis, said one protester at a pro-Morsy rally had told
him he felt demonstrators would stay there "until Mohamed Morsy is once
again president of Egypt." Despite the euphoria in Tahrir, said Wedeman,
"There's a significant portion of the Egyptian population -- I wouldn't
suggest it's a majority -- who are very upset at what has happened."
As news of the coup
broke, clashes were reported throughout the country, with at least eight
killed and 340 wounded. Political violence had rocked the country in
the days leading up to the military takeover.
How are Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood being treated?
The deposed president
was arrested by presidential guards at their headquarters, and is being
held under house arrest and "basically cut (off) from the world," Muslim
Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad told CNN. "They cut all his
access, all his calls. No one is meeting him," he said.
According to reports,
the military has also begun rounding up members of the Muslim
Brotherhood, the long-repressed political movement that propelled the
deposed president to office. State-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported 300
members of the Muslim Brotherhood were being sought by police, and
El-Haddad said the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party chief,
Saad el-Katatni, and his deputy, Rashad Al-Bayoumi, had been arrested.
Has anyone else been affected in the crackdown?
Arabic satellite network
Al Jazeera reported its Cairo studios were raided during a live
broadcast and its presenter, guests and producers detained, after
broadcasting a taped statement from Morsy.
How is Morsy's Islamist base likely to respond?
Morsy has called for
dialogue and appealed to his supporters to demonstrate peacefully, but
observers fear the army's actions could trigger a violent response.
Egyptian envoy: Not a coup
Victory, or 'a sad day' for Egypt?
What will new Egypt look like?
Morsy critic backs 'new road map'
Wedeman said there was a
danger that some members of the Muslim Brotherhood would become
disenfranchised and "challenge (Egypt's new leaders) with violence. They
may take the attitude of 'we tried to play the game, our leaders were
jailed, our media have been shut down ... so we're going to destroy the
system,'" he said. He felt the mood appeared more volatile than after
Mubarak's ouster in 2011. "There's not going to be that quiet after the
storm this time around," he said.
Mohammed Ayoob, Michigan State University professor emeritus of international relations, wrote
an opinion piece for CNN.com
warning of a potential extremist backlash to the coup. "The major
lesson that Islamists in the Middle East are likely to learn from this
episode is that they will not be allowed to exercise power no matter how
many compromises they make in both the domestic and foreign policy
arenas." He added: "This is likely to push a substantial portion of
mainstream Islamists into the arms of the extremists who reject
democracy and ideological compromise."
Telling CNN's Anderson
Cooper that the pro-Morsy protests would remain on the streets, Muslim
Brotherhood spokesman El-Haddad reiterated his movement's commitment to
non-violence, but hinted at the frustrations felt by his camp. "At the
end of the day, we are committed to democracy and to peaceful change of
power. But if the road to democracy every time ... gets derailed ...
what other option are the people left with?"
What has been the reaction internationally?
U.S. President Barack
Obama has expressed his country's "deep concern" over the toppling of a
democratically elected leader and the suspension of the constitution,
and said he would instruct officials to review aid contributions to
Egypt as a result. But as
CNN's Jake Tapper pointed out,
Obama's statement was telling in that he did not use the word "coup,"
and in that he called on the Egyptian military to restore power to "a
democratically elected civilian government" -- but not explicitly
Morsy's.
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon also called for a quick return to civilian rule, appealing
for "calm, non-violence, dialogue and restraint." By contrast, Saudi
Arabia and the UAE both issued statements congratulating the Egyptian
military for their actions.
'Correction' or 'coup'?
The military's actions
have been decried as a coup by Morsy supporters but celebrated as a
"correction" and an expression of the popular will by his opponents. The
issue of definition is critical, as Amanpour pointed out, with
ramifications in terms of how the international community responds to
the situation.
But, she said, "if it's
proven and true that they're running around issuing arrest warrants for
all these people, attacking and closing down various media outlets,
there's very little you can call it other than a coup.
"As one analyst said to
me... no matter what it's called... it's umpired by the army... It's the
army in charge no matter who they put there (in charge)."
The situation was "a
paradox," she added. "Here you have the first elected government --
which obviously didn't perform as the people wanted -- now being drummed
out by the military called upon by so many millions of Egyptians."
The 24-year-old joined the north London club for a club record fee of
€50 million after making 159 appearances for the Spanish giants, and Low
simply cannot understand why los Blancos chose to get rid of him.
