Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi (or Morsy, if you work at the Obama White House) may be on the ropes. The protests continue to build and now his foreign minister has become the sixth high ranking government official to quit the regime.
Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr resigned on Tuesday, bringing to six the number of ministers to leave the cabinet since the outbreak of mass anti-Morsi protests on Sunday. The cabinet spokesman, Alaa al-Hadidi, also quit, state media reported.
Other state institutions also undermined Mr. Morsi’s grip on the state, with a court ruling ordering the removal of the Morsi-appointed prosecutor general, Talaat Abdallah, and moving to reinstate a prosecutor first appointed by President Hosni Mubarak before his ouster.
Also on Tuesday, Egypt’s largest ultraconservative Islamist group and its political arm, the Nour party, joined the call for early presidential elections and the formation of a caretaker cabinet. The group did not heed the original calls to protests against Mr. Morsi, but appears to have been influenced by the turnout.
The Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Cairo was also burned. The military’s ultimatum is now about 24 hours old, with 24 hours to go.
Against all of this, President Obama’s big advice to Morsi last night was to tell him to let all of Egypt’s voices be heard. Obama’s own regime doesn’t even live up to that ideal. His IRS suppressed dissent last year. His Department of Justice spied on reporters. So Morsi could be forgiven if he laughed out loud at Obama’s grand advice.
Update: Doug Ross has 15 photos of the Egyptian protests that you won’t see in the US media.
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