Thousands
of supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi demonstrated
outside the prime minister's office on Wednesday in a "day of
steadfastness" to protest against the formation of a new interim cabinet
on its first day on the job.
Protesters held up Korans and
portraits of Morsi in the blistering noon heat outside the main
government buildings in the center of Cairo, demanding Morsi be restored
to power. They shouted "God is Greatest!" and "Down with military
rule!"
Violence in Sinai:
Egyptian intelligence officials
said a civilian and six soldiers were wounded in an attack on a military
outpost in the Sinai Peninsula near Egypt's border with the
Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip.
Officials said unidentified
militants attacked the barracks late Tuesday with rocket-propelled
grenades and machine guns. A stray bullet wounded a 50 year-old woman in
the Egyptian city of Rafah.
Two military officers and four
soldiers were also wounded in the nighttime attack. Officials said they
were treated at the outpost out of fears that an ambulance transporting
them would be targeted. Officials spoke anonymously because they were
not authorized to speak to media.
EU’s Ashton:
A senior figure in ousted President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood met the European Union's foreign affairs chief in Cairo on Wednesday and said Brussels had offered no proposal that could resolve Egypt's political crisis.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held a 45-minute meeting with Amr Darrag and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, as well as Mursi's prime minister, Hisham Kandil.
Asked whether he was disappointed that the EU was not supporting the Brotherhood, Darrag said: "We are not expecting support from anybody. We are relying only on ourselves."
Cabinet:
Egypt
swore in an interim cabinet on Tuesday of 33 ministers, mostly
technocrats and liberals. Not one was drawn from the two main Islamist
factions that won five straight elections since a 2011 uprising toppled
autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The swearing-in took place in an ornate
hall hours after overnight street battles between Morsi supporters and
the security forces left seven dead and more than 260 wounded, the worst
violence in a week.
The interim cabinet is charged with
implementing a faster-than-expected army-backed "road map" to restore
civilian rule, which foresees parliamentary elections in as few as six
months.
Its main task is salvaging an economy wrecked by two and a
half years of turmoil. For that, it has been given a lifeline of $12
billion in aid from rich Gulf Arab states.
Many of the new cabinet
ministers are supporters of deep economic reforms demanded by the
International Monetary Fund in return for a stalled rescue loan, but
investors are skeptical those reforms will be implemented soon. The new
planning minister has said it is too soon to restart IMF talks and the
Arab cash is enough to sustain Egypt through its transition.
International positions:
US
Secretary of State John Kerry briefed senior Arab officials Wednesday
on his efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and on
American views of the crises and Syria and Egypt.
On his sixth
trip to the region in as many months as America's top diplomat, Kerry
met in Jordan with representatives of the Arab League and nine of its
members that support a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace plan proposed by
Saudi Arabia.
In addition to the peace process, Kerry was
updating the Arabs on U.S. support for the Syrian opposition and
attempts to convene an international conference to establish a
transition government there, as well as Washington's position on Egypt's
political turmoil.
REUTERS/AP
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