CAIRO: Allies of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi told mediators on Saturday that they respected the demands of a mass protest that led to his downfall but that army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi must not be part of any political deal.
Tarek El-Malt, spokesman for the pro-Mursi delegation said that met the envoys from the US and the EU, also Mursi’s allies were seeking a solution to Egypt’s crisis based on a constitution suspended after he was deposed.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda’s leader said Egypt’s military coup provides proof that Islamic rule cannot be established through democracy, and urged Mursi’s followers to abandon the ballot box in favor of armed resistance.
In a 15-minute audio message posted online late Friday, Ayman Al-Zawahri also lashed out at the Egyptian military, the country’s secular and liberal elites as well as the Coptic Christian minority, accusing them of conspiring against Mursi solely because of his Islamic leanings.
He condemned the Brotherhood for having “tried its best to satisfy America and the secularists” by relinquishing “jihad.”
He also noted that Mursi’s government was overthrown despite its acceptance of Egypt’s landmark peace treaty with Israel and security agreements with the US.
“You forgot that democracy is the West’s monopoly and it is allowed for those who benefit from its fruits only on one condition — you be a slave for the West’s ideology, action, policy and economy,” he said.
Al-Zawahri, who grew up in a Cairo suburb, accused the army of being a pawn of US interests.
Pro-Mursi alliance signals flexibility in talks
