EU official urges Egypt to end standoff

The European Union's foreign policy chief urged Egyptian officials on Monday to end deadly confrontations with the Muslim Brotherhood and include all parties in the political process, two days after at least 80 supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi were killed by government security forces.

Catherine Ashton issued a statement stressing the need for a "political process that fully includes all groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood," after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. Ashton also met with interim Vice President Mohamed ELBaradei, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and the Tamarod youth movement.

In a wave of violence over the weekend, security forces killed at least 80 protesters in Nasr City district of Cairo. Witnesses said they saw police and men in plainclothes shooting teargas and live ammunition when the protest swelled into nearby highways, Al Jazeera reports. A police captain also died from the weekend violence. In total, more than 260 people have been killed since the military coup that ousted Morsi on July 3.

In response to the violence, the White House said Monday that the crackdown on demonstrators sets back the process of democratization, according to Reuters.

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Ashton’s call for an inclusive political process and an end to violence echoed remarks she made during her last visit to Egypt two weeks ago, when she met with high-ranking officials and senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The EU diplomat is scheduled to meet with several members of the Brotherhood, including two former cabinet members and Hisham Qandil, who was prime minister until the military sacked the Islamist-led parliament.

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, confirmed with Al Jazeera that it would meet with Ashton Monday on the basis of "constitutional legitimacy and in pursuit of an end to the military coup."

In Ashton’s meeting with Tamarod, meanwhile, the youth movement expressed a desire for Europe to adapt its narrative of the events that toppled Morsi.

“EU needs to recognize that June 30th was [a] revolution not a coup,” the group said according to a tweet by Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Cairo.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, also reporting from Cairo, said that Ashton is extending her Egypt trip for another day to conduct more talks with political players.

Despite Ashton’s efforts, however, both sides seem to be further from a compromise since the military takeover, analysts say.

Abul-Ela Madi and Essam Soltan, members of Islamist Wasat Party, and Morsi supporters, were arrested late Sunday on allegations of inciting violence. The party condemned the arrests, saying such measures exacerbate the crisis and add new obstacles to efforts to build bridges. Several Muslim Brotherhood leaders and other prominent Islamists have been imprisoned in recent weeks. Morsi himself has been held incommunicado by the military since his ouster.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Coup Alliance of Islamist groups, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, has called for a million-man march Tuesday night urging Egyptians "to go out into the streets and squares, to regain their freedom and dignity that are being usurped by the bloody coup, and for the rights of the martyrs assassinated by its bullets," according to The Associated Press.

The group has also called for its supporters to march at security administration buildings Monday night.

Since the coup, Morsi supporters have held sit-ins at Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in the Nasr City district of Cairo to demand daily the reinstatement of the democratically-elected president. Military supporter have also staged numerous rallies at the Tahrir Square in central Cairo.

A much smaller “Third Square” has been set up at Sphinx Square in Cairo by those opposing both Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the military interference in politics. 

Source: Al Jazeera and wire services