The head of Egypt's armed forces issued a declaration on Wednesday suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state.
In a televised broadcast, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Sisi called for presidential and parliamentary elections, a panel to review the constitution and a national reconciliation committee that would include youth movements. He said the roadmap had been agreed by a range of political groups.
Following the announcement, fireworks burst over Cairo's Tahrir Square, the center of protests against Mohamed Morsi, and across the Egyptian capital.
"The people and the army are one hand," protesters cheered in the square, amid the roar of horns and chanting, a Reuters witness said.
The announcement follows talks with
military chiefs who gave President Mohamed Morsi an ultimatum to share power,
which has now expired.
Earlier, Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper quoted
on Wednesday a presidential source as saying that the army told President
Mohamed Morsi at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) that he was no longer head of state.
Meanwhile, Egyptian army erected barbed wire and barriers around a barracks where
embattled President Morsi was working and deployed armored vehicles and troops
to prevent his supporters marching from a nearby rally to his palace, witnesses
said.
A Reuters’ journalist saw troops move into place close to the Rabaa Adaweya
mosque area, where tens of thousands of supporters of Morsi's Muslim
Brotherhood are rallied to support the democratically elected president and
what they call constitutional legitimacy.
This as President Morsi has spent Wednesday
working normally at a regular presidential office in a compound of the
Republican Guard in suburban Cairo, an aide to the Islamist head of state told
Reuters.
Morsi’s
aide, Yasser Haddara, a communications adviser, said it was unclear if the
president would be free to leave later to return to the palace where he spent
the previous night.
Haddara added that the president's message to all Egyptians was that they
should resist the "military coup", but they should do so peacefully,
without violence against troops, the police or each other.
In this regard,
the Egyptian presidency said a coalition government should be part of a
solution to the country's political standoff but appeared to offer no new
compromises as a deadline set by the army for a power sharing agreement
elapsed.
Earlier
in the day, Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said it expected President
Morsi would either step down or be removed from
office.
This comes as the death toll in violence involving Islamist supporters of
President Morsi near Cairo University rose to 16 and 200 people were wounded;
state television quoted a Health Ministry spokesman as
saying.
Gamaa
Islamiya:
President Morsi's hardline Islamist allies in
al-Gamaa al-Islamiya want him to call early presidential elections to avoid
bloodshed and a military coup, Tarek al-Zumar, a senior member of the group
told Reuters.
Reactions:
The United States is 'very concerned' about the
situation in Egypt, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday of the
sweeping protests surrounding a stand-off between Egypt's armed forces and
Islamist President Morsi.
This as a senior member of the Muslim
Brotherhood's political party warned that the Egyptian people would not stay
calm in the face of a "military rebellion" and said freedom was more
valuable than life.
Essam el-Erian, deputy leader of the
Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said anyone wagering that the people
would stay calm in the face of military revolt would lose their
bet.
On
an economic level:
Egypt's share index fell by 1.7 percent in
early trade ahead of an army deadline later in the day for President Mohamed
Morsi to agree to share power, an ultimatum that Morsi has
rejected.
Egypt's central bank has told banks to close
their branches early and has advanced the time for a foreign currency auction,
a banker said, ahead of an army deadline that could trigger a military takeover
backed by protesters.
Banks closed their branches by 2:00 p.m. (1200
GMT) instead of the usual 5:00 p.m.
REUTERS/AP
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