Diplomats resist calling Morsi ouster a coup

Susan Davis | USA TODAY

Top current and former diplomats for the United States and Egypt resisted Sunday characterizations that the ousting of democratically elected former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was a military coup, which would violate U.S. foreign policy to provide further financial assistance to the fledgling government.

"I think it's important to look at the context. You had 20 million to 30 million people out on the street. The military had the choice between intervention and chaos, and they had to respond to that," former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Nabil Fahmy said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"They did oust the president, that's true," Fahmy said. "But then they handed over government immediately to the interim president. So the fact that they seized power or wanted to seize power is, frankly, incorrect."

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei was reportedly expected to be tapped as interim prime minister, but a spokesman for interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour walked it back Saturday. ElBaradei canceled a scheduled appearance Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, citing laryngitis and a fever, according to show host David Gregory.

On ABC's This Week, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Mohamed Tawfik likewise said a military coup had "absolutely not" taken place. "Egypt has not undergone a military coup, and it is certainly not run by the military," he said, adding that the nation was working to hold democratic elections "as soon as possible" but offered no specific date.

The United States is not aligned with any Egyptian faction, President Obama said Saturday, and he condemned violence there, saying "the future path of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people."

Other officials Sunday said Morsi's ouster may help loosen the ties of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and make it easier for new elections.

However, leading voices in Washington contend that it is the security interest of the U.S. and the region to help loosen the grip the Muslim Brotherhood has over Egypt and assist in holding a new set of democratic elections.

The United States should continue providing military and economic aid to Egypt, said Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on CNN. That's despite U.S. policy that forbids assistance to nations where the military ousts a democratically elected government.

The military is "the one stabilizing force in Egypt that I think can temper down the political feuding that you're seeing going on now, and then help a process that will allow for multiple factions of parties and beliefs to participate," Rogers said.

"We have to make sure that the military gets a very clear message that we want to see a transition to a civilian government as quickly as possible," added Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., on NBC.

"The world needs Egypt to be stable," Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said on CNN's State of the Union. He added: "What we're seeing is that democracy takes a while to stick."