Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi rush to help a wounded man after a gun battle erupted outside the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard on July 5, 2013.[/caption]Press TV has talked with Hisham el Batal, a political analyst from Cairo, to share his thoughts on the latest developments on the ground in the crisis-hit country.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV:Let us look at the whole situation on the ground. Now some are saying with the rise in instability that perhaps it would have been a better option had the former president been stayed in power and basically it had been taken for early elections instead of the type of instability that we are witnessing right now and possible setting up the situation for clashes between various groups. Your take sir?
Batal:Ok, juss let me at the beginning clear some few things, clarify some few things; the situation on the ground is that pro-Morsi supporters are gathering, flocking, in various squares in Egypt, all over Egypt, in various governorates, and they are not willing to leave the squares until the legitimate president comes back to office and what is happening, what we are seeing, is that for example today al-Sisi began his psychological warfare against the Egyptians who support President Morsi.
For example, he let the fighter airplanes throw leaflets of propaganda threatening the people gathering in the squares and as analyst I see this as the beginning of losing his temper and his control over things.
Two days before (ago), for the first time in the Egyptian history over a civil square in one quarter of the Egyptian capital two apaches flew very lowly over the heads of the people gathering there and I was there and witnessed that myself and that was a very funny threat by the way. People received this with laughter and Allahu Akbar (God is great) and they prepared themselves to be martyrs.
What is happening is that al-Sisi, which (who) has been seen by most of the Egyptians now as a traitor, is pushing the country towards civil war, not civil war, this is a civil-military war; the people from one side and the army or the military from the other side because the people are insisting on grasping the ground until their legitimate president comes to office again and what happened is that al-Sisi only in one declaration, in one very black declaration, threw the votes of 26 million Egyptian voters into garbage.
This is how we see the things in Egypt now.
Press TV:Mr. Batal, your take on that? Your take on what our guest is saying, that it is the Muslim Brotherhood now that is trying to use violence and that actually they are the ones now going against the will of the people.
Batal:Well, before even answering this question I would like to say something. If the Muslim Brotherhood are those people gathering in the streets over the past three days, then they are the most powerful political party or community in Egypt and let us hand over Egypt to them because they are the most powerful.
Talking about the myth that the Muslim Brotherhood are the people, they are only people gathering in the streets calling for President Morsi to come back to office and the trial of al-Sisi as a traitor, is a myth and this is a funny one by the way, because people are..., al-Sisi made a very dangerous mistake, actually he turned President Morsi from an elected president, elected by the votes of 26 million Egyptian voters into a public leader.
By the way now this person, this president, legitimate president, has governorates over Egypt being separated or declaring independence for him, calling him to come back to office, like Mersa Matruh, Sinai, Bani Suef, al-Minya, Sohaj and those governorates are..., although they are not covered, the activity of the supporters of President Morsi are not covered by the media as it should be, they are grasping the ground, holding the ground, and they are calling for the president to come back and they even, two days before, several governorates declared that they consider themselves independent governorates until the legitimate president comes to office again. And he turned him from only an elected president into a popular leader.
By Press TV
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