In other developments Monday, protesters overran and ransacked the headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Protesters were seen attacking the facility, pelting it with stones and firebombs. Brotherhood backers barricaded inside opened fire on them in clashes that went on for hours and left eight dead. In the early hours Monday, protesters breached the walls of the six-story luxury villa and stormed inside.
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 22:17:31 +0530
Subject: Egypt's president Morsi rejects military's ultimatum on political crisis
Egypt's president Morsi rejects military's ultimatum on political crisis
Egypt teetered on the brink of overthrow after a defiant Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi rejected an ultimatum issued by the military, in which defense officials have pledged to intervene if the government does not address public demands and bring an end to the political turmoil engulfing Cairo.
Morsi said Tuesday that he had not been consulted and would pursue his own plans for reconciliation between his government and opposition leaders, according to Reuters.
Morsi is meeting with army chief-of-staff General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Prime Minister Hisham Kandil for the second straight day.
The Egyptian leader has repeatedly said he will not quit, saying that street action must not be allowed to remove an elected president or else the same could happen to future presidents. At the same time, Morsi has offered no concessions -- though his opponents appear in no mood to accept anything short of his removal anyway. His Islamist supporters, some of them hard-liners who belong to formerly armed militant groups, have vowed to defend him.
Reuters reported that a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said "everyone" rejected the military declaration.
"Solutions will be in the framework of the constitution," Yasser Hamza, a member of the FJP's legal committee, told Al Jazeera. "The age of military coups is over."
The comments came as a foreign ministry official said two spokesmen for Morsi -- Omar Amer and Ihab Fahmy -- have stepped down after nearly five months speaking on behalf of Morsi. On Monday, six of his cabinet members quit.
Millions are expected to protest again in Egypt Tuesday, with protesters calling for a mass rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Canada has closed its embassy in Cairo, citing security concerns.
In a highly symbolic move, crowds are camping out at the square, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. They also have massed outside the president's Ittahdiya palace in the leafy suburb of Heliopolis.
Across town, however, Morsi's backers are hunkering down at their own rally site.
In Suez, images from Al Jazeera showed Egyptian troops chanting, marching and training for unarmed combat, Reuters reports.
On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama urged Morsi to respond to issues raised by the protesters.
The White House released a statement saying that Obama told Morsi in a telephone conversation that "the United States is committed to the democratic process in Egypt and does not support any single party or group." The statement went on to say that Obama "encouraged [Morsi] to take steps to show that he is responsive to [protesters'] concerns, and underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process."
The military's ultimatum puts enormous pressure on Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Opposition and crowds in the street have made clear they will accept nothing less than his departure and a transition to early presidential elections.
Military helicopters, some dangling Egyptian flags, swooped over Cairo's Tahrir Square Monday where many protesters broke into cheers with the army's announcement, read on state television. The statement seemed to fuel the flow of crowds into city squares around the country where protesters chanted and sang.
The military underlined it will "not be a party in politics or rule." But it said it has a responsibility to act because Egypt's national security is facing a "grave danger," according to a statement.
"The Armed Forces repeat its call for the people's demands to be met and give everyone 48 hours as a last chance to shoulder the burden of a historic moment for a nation that will not forgive or tolerate any party that is lax in shouldering its responsibility," it said.
It did not directly define "the people's demands," but said if they are not realized, the military is obliged to "announce a road-map for the future and the steps for overseeing its implementation, with participation of all patriotic and sincere parties and movements."
Military sources told Reuters that a draft version of the road-map would suspend Egypt's constitution and dissolve its Islamist-dominated parliament.
The military's declaration on Monday was the second ultimatum to be given to Morsi and the opposition to reach an agreement. Last Sunday, Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi gave the two sides a week to reach an agreement. That ultimatum expired on Sunday, with Morsi repeating his longstanding offer for dialogue that the opposition rejected.
The organizers of Sunday's protests also gave Morsi a Tuesday 5 p.m. local time deadline to step down or face an escalation of the campaign to force him out, including civil disobedience. The deadline has now passed.
The founder of one Egyptian protest movement welcomed the military ultimatum and urged people to rally again until Morsi quits, Reuters reports.
Mahmoud Badr, of the "Tamarod - Rebel!'" coalition told a televised news conference: "The statement of the armed forces has a single idea - supporting the will of the Egyptian people at this moment, which means early presidential elections."
In other developments Monday, protesters overran and ransacked the headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Protesters were seen attacking the facility, pelting it with stones and firebombs. Brotherhood backers barricaded inside opened fire on them in clashes that went on for hours and left eight dead. In the early hours Monday, protesters breached the walls of the six-story luxury villa and stormed inside.
Footage on local TV networks showed smashed windows, blackened walls and smoke billowing out of the fortified villa in the Muqatam district in eastern Cairo. A fire was still raging on one floor hours after the building was stormed. One protester tore down the Muslim Brotherhood sign from the building's front wall, while another hoisted Egypt's red, black and white flag out an upper-story window and waved it in the air in triumph.
The main rallies in Cairo were largely peaceful, but deadly violence broke out in several parts of the country, often when marchers came under gunfire, apparently from Islamists. At least 16 people were killed and more than 780 injured, Health Ministry spokesman Yehya Moussa told state television.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Peace Is Doable
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