The Egyptian military (the ultimate arbiter of the current crisis if it chooses to be) has issued statement saying it “will not be involved in the country’s politics or government” but also gives the country’s politicians 48 hours to meet the people’s demands or will introduce its own plan.
This is going from very immediate translations into English. So quite possible that some nuances are missed. But this sounds like a somewhat contradictory message. But the upshot seems to be, We don’t want to get involved. But if you don’t get this settled quickly, we will.
Report: Supreme Council of the Armed Forces holding now a meeting WITHOUT presence of president Mohamed Morsi.
— Hussein Ibish (@Ibishblog) July 1, 2013
Ibish is a very knowledgable observer of the region. If this report he cites is accurate, it might fairly be interpreted as the beginnings of at least a soft coup.
10:45 PM: The translation I’m seeing to the teeth behind the Egyptian military’s ultimatum is that they will “impose its own roadmap” if no solution is achieved within 48 hours. I’ve also see translations that have a little less bite than ‘impose’.
10:49 PM: A certain irony if Turkey has moved away from Kemalist practice of military as custodian of democratic process (perhaps a generous interpretation but something to it) if Egypt is moving toward it. Of course, Egypt has had more than half a century of, in effect, rule by the military in the lightly civilianized guise of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak. In any case, has some vague resemblance to the Turkish military’s very soft 1997 overthrow of Erbakan in as much as it was publicly telegraphed.
I've a feeling that after this army statement, yesterday's protests will look like rehearsal compared to tomorrow's encouraged ones. #Egypt
— Bassem Sabry باس٠(@Bassem_Sabry) July 1, 2013
