The military council should hand power over to the winner of the first presidential election in Egypt and fulfill their promise to the Egyptian people, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was quoted by the BBC on Wednesday during talks in the presence of former Secretary of State James Baker as accusing the generals of reneging on their promises.
The Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) has postponed the announcement of the winner in the runoff from Thursday to Sunday in order to consider appeals against the electoral process filed by the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsy, and his rival, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq.
The military council also issued a supplement to the Constitutional Declaration that has been governing the country since March 2011 after being voted in by popular referendum. The amendment extended legislative powers to the council and restricts the powers of the next president.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told Al-Masry Al-Youm online that Washington is closely watching what is happening in Egypt, and that the military’s recent actions indicate that they want to cling to power. She pointed out that what happens during this democratic transition would influence relations with the United States.
For its part, the Tagammu Party warned the United States against exerting pressure on the Egyptian authorities to expedite declaring Morsy the winner.
In a statement on Thursday, the party denounced what they called interference by the United States in the internal affairs of Egypt when the Pentagon objected to the Supreme Constitutional Court’s ruling to dissolve Parliament, saying the US bias toward the Muslim Brotherhood could ignite a bitter war that would destroy Egypt.
The statement also warned against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party going along with United States intervention.
In rebuttal, a military source claims that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces does not and would not interfere with the decisions of the PEC.
With regard to pressure on the military by some Western countries, primarily the United States, the source said the council is not concerned with any such pressure, as the majority of the Egyptians trust the military establishment and its decisions.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
