Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood's future uncertain after interim president sworn in

Updated

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood will not work with "the usurper authorities", a member of its executive board said rejecting overtures from the newly sworn-in head of state after the military removed elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi from power.

The statement came hours after new interim leader Adli Mansour was sworn in as president and head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, a day after the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Mr Morsi.

Mr Mansour used his inauguration to hold out an olive branch to the Brotherhood.

Key points: Army removes Mohammed Morsi from office

Supreme constitutional court president Adli Mansour sworn in as head of state

Interim technocratic government installed

Early presidential and parliamentary elections to be held

Army rounds up Muslim Brotherhood leaders

"The Muslim Brotherhood are part of this people and are invited to participate in building the nation as nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed," he said.

However, Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Barr - a member of the Brotherhood's executive board - dismissed the offer in a statement on the group's website.

"We reject participation in any work with the usurper authorities," the statement said.

"We call on protesters to show self-restraint and stay peaceful. We reject the oppressive, police state practices: killing, arrests, curbing media freedom and closing TV channels."

Army rounds up Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Egyptian authorities have started rounding up the top layer of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, with up to three hundred of Mr Morsi's supporters thought to be on an arrest list.

Shortly after the transitional leader's swearing in, Egypt's prosecutor ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater, widening a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president.

Within hours Egyptian military police had arrested Badie, a security official said, "for inciting the killing of protesters".

A judicial source said the prosecution would begin questioning Brotherhood members, including Mr Morsi, on Monday for "insulting the judiciary".

Other leaders of the movement would be questioned on the same charges, including the head of its political arm Saad al-Katatni, Mohammed al-Beltagui, Gamal Gibril and Taher Abdel Mohsen.

Mr Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders have also been slapped with a travel ban.

A senior military officer said the army was "preventively" holding Mr Morsi and that he might face formal charges linked to his prison escape during the revolt that overthrew dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Protesters disperse as leaders call for calm

Crowds had largely left Cairo's streets and Tahrir Square, which saw the the largest protests.

At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in street clashes across Egypt since Mr Morsi's overthrow, and television stations sympathetic to Mr Morsi were taken off air.

There was a call for calm from the influential Dawa Salafiya movement of Egyptian Salafists, urging Islamists to "leave the squares to go to their mosques and homes".

But a smaller Salafist group, the El-Asalah Party, posted on its website the locations in Cairo and other cities where its followers should gather in the afternoon in support of Mr Morsi.

The clock started ticking for Mr Morsi's regime when millions took to the streets on Sunday to demand he resign. They accused his Brotherhood of hijacking the revolution, entrenching its power and failing to revive the economy.

That gave armed forces chief general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who already had his own reservations about the state of the nation under Mr Morsi, a justification to invoke the "will of the people" and demand the president share power or step aside.

International reaction to leadership change

Mr Morsi's ousting received a mixed reception abroad, as it had inside Egypt.

Gulf Arab states welcomed Egypt's interim leader, hopeful his appointment would stem the rise of Islamists in the Middle East, but the military overthrow of an elected president drew a guarded response from Iran and condemnation from Turkey.

The United States expressed concern at the ouster of Mr Morsi and called for a swift return to democracy, as did the European Union.

But they stopped short of calling it a coup, which might have led to sanctions.

"I call on everyone to exercise restraint and refrain from violence," NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

German chancellor Angela Merkel urged Egyptians not to resort to violence, while Britain indicated it was ready to work with the interim leaders.

The United Nations says civilian rule should resume as soon as possible.

The 54-nation African Union was likely to suspend Egypt for allowing "unconstitutional change", a senior AU source said.

For Gulf Arab states, which see Egypt as a strategic ally against any threat from non-Arab Iran across the Gulf, the appointment of Mr Mansour as interim leader was met with congratulations and evident relief.

"We followed with all consideration and satisfaction the national consensus that your brotherly country is witnessing, and which had played a prominent role in leading Egypt peacefully out of the crisis it had faced," United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said.

Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, was quoted as praising Egypt's armed forces for the "positive and historic role" they played in preserving stability.

Reuters/AFP

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, government-and-politics, islam, community-and-society, egypt

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