The Egyptian government resigns

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Yesterday the Egyptian government declared its resignation. In July 2013 the army of Egypt overthrew Islamist President Muhammad Mursi and declared a transition period in the country, in the context of people’s indignation with the Muslim Brotherhood.

On February 27th, Cairo will host the next court session in an espionage case – the main defendants are the former president of Egypt Muhammad Mursi and 35 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian general prosecution accuses Mursi and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood of giving away information on defense capacity of the country to Iran. ITAR-TASS reports that the defendants are accused of a secret deal with “foreign organizations” aimed at committing terrorist attacks inside the country and “giving away a military secret to another country,” which concerns defense capacity of Egypt. Moreover, the leadership of Islamists is accused of sponsorship of terrorists. Documents prepared by the general prosecution state that the Brotherhood was involved in committing violence and terrorist attacks in Egypt for several years. They are accused of development of “a terrorist plan” which required cooperation with the Palestine movement of Hamas, the Lebanese Shiah group Hezbollah, and the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

When Mursi was dismissed, attacks by militants became frequent. No later than April 19th the presidential elections should be held in Egypt, and later the parliamentary elections.

“In the recent history of Egypt, it is not the first time that a national crisis has revealed some political figures, then others. It has had no result, and at the crucial moment the army starts acting, increasing its efforts and then, if we call a spade a spade, it takes power,” Andrei Baklanov, Ambassador, Advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, told Vestnik Kavkaza. “The military in Egypt showed amazing patience, and at the early stages of the political crisis they tried to stay neutral, not to interfere in the events. When it came to talking about the possible disintegration of the country, that groups closely associated with gangs will rule in some areas, the military decided to take tough measures to restore order.”

Baklanov thinks that the role played by the military is extremely important: “Nowadays suppressing riots even in the name of national goals is very unpopular. But a rather broad strata of the population in Egypt understand that the role of the military is to stabilize the country. It may also have its flaws, but overall it was the only possible way of acting under those circumstances - it was a courageous role… I think that the new Egyptian president will take into account everything that has happened, particularly in the period after the revolution in 1952, and will be able to find the best ways out of the crisis. Although my personal opinion is that, at the moment, the most vulnerable aspects are not the issues of democracy, where, of course, there is a lot of extra demagoguery, which makes it impossible to understand the true causes of the situation. The underlying cause of the crisis is the lack of working strategies of economic development: over the last 15-20 years Egyptians tried a lot of them and, frankly, failed to find ways to boost the economy and raise living standards. During Nasser's reign, this problem was being solved very well for the general public, and now the Egyptians psychologically expect that the new President will not engage in democracy, for everyone is already tired of its meaningless slogans that lead nowhere. They hope he will deal with current affairs - the fate of Egypt, the fate of the population, the fate of the economy and the social development of the country.”