REPORT: Draft Egypt army roadmap to change constitution, scrap parliament

 
Egypt's armed forces would suspend the constitution and dissolve an Islamist-dominated parliament under a draft political roadmap to be pursued if Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and the liberal opposition fail to agree by Wednesday, military sources said.
   
The sources told Reuters the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) was still discussing details and the plan, intended to resolve a political crisis that has brought millions of protesters into the streets, could be changed based on political developments and consultations.
   
Chief-of-staff General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called in a statement on Monday for Morsi to agree within 48 hours on power-sharing with other political forces, saying the military would otherwise set out its own roadmap for the country's future.
 
Earlier, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi met the head of the armed forces for the second day, along with the prime minister, the president's office said in a statement.
   
It gave no details of the talks. They came a day after the military chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, gave Morsi and his opponents until Wednesday to resolve a political deadlock or face a solution imposed by the armed forces.
   
Prime Minister Hisham Kandil was also present at the meetings with Morsi and Sisi on Monday and Tuesday.
 
This comes as Egypt's justice minister denied an al-Arabiya television report that the government had resigned after the armed forces gave President Mohamed Morsi 48 hours to agree to share power in response to mass protests.             

"The government has not submitted its resignation and what has been raised on that matter is not true," Justice Minister Ahmed Suleiman told reporters after a meeting of the rump cabinet under Prime Minister Hisham Kandil.              

Six ministers who are not members of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood submitted their resignations on Monday, and the official MENA news agency said the ministers of defense and the interior did not attend the cabinet session.              

Earlier, President Mohamed Morsi rebuffed an army ultimatum to force a resolution to Egypt's political crisis, saying on Tuesday that he had not been consulted and would pursue his own plans for national reconciliation.               

Members of his Muslim Brotherhood have used the word "coup" to describe the military maneuver, which carries the threat of the generals imposing their own road map for the nation.        

On Tuesday, the state news agency said the foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, had also asked to step down.                                

Some Brotherhood leaders, who swept a series of votes last year, said they would look to put their own supporters on the streets. After the destruction of the Brotherhood's headquarters in a battle overnight on Monday in which eight people were killed, the possibility of wider violence seems real.              

World powers are looking on anxiously, including the United States, which has long funded the Egyptian army as a key component in the security of Washington's ally Israel.             

President Barack Obama has urged Morsi and his rivals to compromise. But Washington has also defended the legitimacy of Morsi's election. It is unclear how far the Egyptian military has informed, or coordinated with, its US sponsors.                        

On another note,  Egypt's top appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision to dismiss the prosecutor general appointed by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, judicial sources and the state news agency MENA said.            

The decision removed public prosecutor Talaat Abdallah and ordered the return of former prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud to his post, MENA said.  
          
Abdallah's appointment was fiercely contested by the liberal opposition, which accused him of bias towards the Islamist government and of using his position to prosecute critics of the president while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses.        

Positions:           

Iran called on the Egyptian military to respect the "vote of the people" and to support national reconciliation after it issued a warning that it will intervene in Egypt's political crisis.                             

"Mohammed Morsi is the incumbent president based on the people's vote," Iranian deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told the official IRNA news agency.                        

"It is expected of the armed forces of Egypt that they play their role in supporting national reconciliation and respect the vote of the people."  
                         
In turn, the UN human rights office called on the government of President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday to listen to the demands of the Egyptian people and engage in a "serious national dialogue" to defuse the crisis.                 

Rupert Colville, spokesman of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, also said the role of the Egyptian military was crucial. "Nothing should be done that would undermine democratic processes," he told a briefing.


REUTERS/AP

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