White House Urges Egypt’s Military to Contain Violence


The Obama administration on Friday publicly pressed Egypt’s military to do more to ensure that violence in the country is contained. The State Department also said that the military shouldn’t target the Muslim Brotherhood or its supporters in any post-Morsi crackdown.

“The voices of all who are protesting peacefully must be heard – including those who welcomed the events of earlier this week and those who supported President Morsi,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

The Egyptian military’s arrest of President Mohammed Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders is placing President Barack Obama in a difficult policy position.

The U.S. did very little during the last days of Mr. Morsi’s presidency to push back the Egyptian military’s moves to unseat him. At the same time, the White House is bound by congressional law to cut aid to any allied military that is certified to have overthrown a democratically elected government by force.

Mr. Obama has been careful in recent days not to describe Mr. Morsi’s overthrow as a coup d’état, even though the U.S. leader said he would review aid to Egypt. Any increased crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, though, could make it more difficult for the U.S. leadership not to describe the events in Egypt as a coup.

Still, support for the Egyptian military’s actions has been strong on Capitol Hill. In recent days, leading Republicans and Democrats have said the overthrow of Mr. Morsi was necessary, though they pressed the Egyptian military to quickly restore civilian rule.

“It is now up to the Egyptian military to demonstrate that the new transitional government can and will govern in a transparent manner and work to return the country to democratic rule,” said the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce (R., Calif.) and Eliot Engel, (D., N.Y.), in a statement. “We are encouraged that a broad cross-section of Egyptians will gather to rewrite the constitution.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/07/05...ntain-violence/

Zitat

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Mr. Obama has been careful in recent days not to describe Mr. Morsi’s overthrow as a coup d’état...

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I wonder what all around Leftist and Zero ass kisser Colon Powell would have to say about this disaster his buddy created? Didn't he say: 'You break it, you own it".