Chilly Cairo welcome for US envoy as Morsi supporters gather

The first senior US official to visit Egypt since the army toppled its elected president was snubbed by both Islamists and their opponents today, while huge crowds of supporters of the ousted leader demonstrated in the streets.

After meeting the interim head of state and the prime minister, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns insisted he was not in town "to lecture anyone". But many on either side of Egypt's divide suspect Washington of plotting against them.

A huge crowd of supporters of Islamist Mohamed Morsi poured into a square near a mosque in northeast Cairo carrying a giant Egyptian flag, banners and portraits of the detained leader.

Accusing the United States of backing a military coup, thousands of Morsi’s partisans have kept a vigil there since the days before the army toppled him on July 3rd, swelling to tens of thousands for mass protests every few days.

Today’s was one of the biggest of the past week, with the crowd growing at nightfall after the end of the Ramadan fast.

Apart from the main protest at the mosque, thousands of Morsi supporters set up a tented camp outside Cairo University.

As the sun set, a teenage girl with a green headscarf took to a stage there, reading a poem and reciting from the Koran. Boys played soccer and fathers bounced toddlers on their shoulders. They chanted a call-and-response with a cleric asking God to strike down the armed forces chief who unseated Morsi.

The army warned demonstrators that it would respond with “the utmost severity and firmness and force” if they approached military bases. At least 92 people were killed in the days after Morsi was toppled, more than half of them shot by troops outside a barracks near the mosque a week ago.

Protests since then have been tense but mostly peaceful.

Morsi’s foes also called for a demonstration this evening. Their rallies have been small since they achieved their objective of bringing him down.

Crisis in the Arab world’s most populous state, which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the strategic Suez Canal, has alarmed allies in the region and the West.

Reuters