Warrants issued for arrest of Muslim Brotherhood leaders

Egypt’s prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader and nine others for allegedly instigating violence.

Warrants have been issued for the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, as well as his deputy and strongman, Mahmoud Ezzat. Eight other leading Islamists also were ordered to be taken into custody.

The move comes after the Brotherhood declared it will refuse to join an interim cabinet to replace ousted president Mohammed Mursi, spurning an offer from the new prime minister to help shepherd the country through a transition period.

Prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi is holding consultations on a cabinet that will face the difficult task of guiding the deeply divided country through what promises to be a rocky transition period following the military’s toppling of Mr Mursi last week. In what is seen as an attempt at reconciliation,he has said he will offer the Brotherhood, which helped propel Mr Mursi to the presidency, posts in his transitional government.

A Brotherhood spokesman said the group will not take part and that talk of national reconciliation under the current circumstances is “irrelevant.”

Egypt’s country’s interim leaders and military have tried to fast-track the transition process in an effort to restore a measure of stability to the country while also reassuring Western allies that the country is on a path toward democratically-based leadership. Under a timetable announced by the interim president, new elections are to be held early next year.

The Brotherhood’s refusal to join the new military-backed leadership was widely expected. The group has denounced the toppling of Mr Mursi as a coup against democracy, and has vowed to continue its street protests until the deposed president is returned to power.

However its rejection underscored how polarised the nation’s politics have become, and laid bare the monumental task the interim leadership faces in trying stabilize the country. The nascent government will soon face demands that it tackle economic woes that mounted under Mr Morsi, including fuel shortages, electricity cuts and inflation.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provided a welcome boost for the new leadership today. The two countries, both opponents of Morsi’s Brotherhood, celebrated his ouster by showering the cash-strapped Egyptian government with promises of 8 billion dollars (€6.2 billion) in grants, loans and badly needed gas and oil.

In doing so, they are effectively stepping in for Mr Mursi’s Gulf patron, Qatar, a close ally of the Brotherhood that gave his government several billion in aid. During Mr Mursi’s year in office, he and his officials toured multiple countries seeking cash to prop up rapidly draining foreign currency reserves and plug mounting deficits — at times getting a cold shoulder.

As the new prime minister looks to cobble together a government, Egypt’s new leadership is facing pressure from those who backed the military’s move.

Several groups in the loose coalition participating in the political process were angered over the transition plan issued by interim president Adly Mansour. His declaration set out a seven-month timetable for elections but also a truncated, temporary constitution laying out the division of powers in the meantime.

At the heart of liberals’ objections to the plan is that they wanted to write a new constitution, not amend the one written under Mr Mursi by an Islamist-dominated panel. That constitution contained several articles that drew fierce criticism from liberal quarters, and helped sparked street protests and violence in 2012.

The top liberal political grouping, the National Salvation Front, has also rejected the transition plan. It said it was not consulted — “in violation of previous promises” — and that the declaration “lacks significant clauses while others need change or removal.” It did not elaborate but said it had presented Mr Mansour with changes it seeks.

The secular, revolutionary youth movement Tamarod, which organised last week’s massive protests against Mr Mursi that prompted the military to step in, also criticised the plan, in part because it gives too much power to Mr Mansour, including the power to issue laws.

A post-Mursi plan put forward by Tamarod called for a largely ceremonial interim president with most power in the hands of the prime minister.

AP