Interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour met with political, military and judiciary representatives on Saturday to discuss the implementation of an interim government until a new constitution is drafted and elections are held in the wake of Wednesday’s ouster of former President Mohammed Morsi. A spokesman for Mansour’s office also denied rumors that secular opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei had been sworn in as interim Prime Minister, a position set in place by the military until the next election was scheduled and held. ElBaradei represented the Tamarud youth movement that sparked the initial anti-Morsi protests.

The rumors of ElBaradei’s swearing in caused anger among Egyptian Islamists, whom he has frequently criticized on social media while also supporting the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian army troops patrolled the streets in Cairo after Wednesday’s coup.

Amr Mekki of the Salafist Islamic party al-Nour said:

You criticize the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamists for not sharing in their decision making, but then you do the same thing, but with a different approach… This isn’t the way of democracy or the way of dealing with a country like Egypt like that.

Meanwhile, Mohammed al-Nashar of the Muslim Brotherhood said:

[El-Baradei's] enthusiastic support for the military coup and arrests of our leaders has shown that he does not really believe in democracy… This appointment and the military coup that brought him to power will take Egypt back to the Mubarak era.

ElBaradei returned to Egypt in 2010 after leading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA.) He made a name for himself both as a vocal critic of Mubarak and later as a critic of the military-led transition of Egypt’s government after Mubarak’s overthrow.

Mohamed ElBaradei
(Credit: Reuters)

As Opposition Grew, No One Was Left to Blame
On Wednesday July 3 Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, was overthrown by tbe military after failing to reach reconciliation with a coalition of opposition groups that included Tamarud, al-Nour and Coptic Christians. The military had given Morsi 48 hours on Monday to work out agreements with the opposition before it intervened and forced a political transition.

The opposition began with massive protests from Tamarud on Sunday June 30 and opposition quickly spread to other factions in Egypt with different grievances. Opponents accused Morsi of governing in an autocratic fashion, placing members of the Muslim Brotherhood in top positions of power while ignoring the wishes opposition groups. Others protested the rise in crimes such as murder and sexual assault since Morsi took power.

The most common complaint, though, was Egypt’s economy, which was already unhealthy before Morsi’s ascent and has become worse since. Egypt’s tourism has dropped since the political turbulence in 2011, and the continued instability and uncertainty about the nation’s future has also hurt foreign investment.

Professor Noah Feldman at Bloomberg said Morsi’s failure to create a coalition government that compromised with opposition groups created an environment where Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were left holding all of the blame for the economic failure. “Mursi failed to appoint a coalition Cabinet with any meaningful breadth,” Feldman said. “Anger at shortages and a failing economy then fell squarely on him and his party.”

National Review columnist Andrew McCarthy said the failure of the Morsi government reflected the absence of “a culture of liberty that safeguards minority rights” in Egypt: “Democratic processes — elections, referenda, constitution-drafting — must be conditioned on a preexisting democratic culture. Otherwise, in a majority-Muslim country like Egypt, you end up giving totalitarianism the patina of democratic legitimacy. Quite predictably, when Morsi put the draft constitution to a countrywide democratic vote, the vast majority of Egyptians used their self-determining liberty to enshrine liberty-devouring sharia as their fundamental law.”

Secretary of State John Kerry was photographed on his yacht during the Egyptian crisis.

America’s Muted Response
President Barack Obama‘s administration has shown an ambivalence toward the situation. On the White House’s website on Wednesday, Obama released a statement reading,

The United States does not support particular individuals or political parties, but we are committed to the democratic process and respect for the rule of law.

Secretary of State John Kerry was photographed on his yacht in Nantucket by CBS on Friday. The State Department initially denied the story before admitting that Kerry “was briefly on his boat on Wednesday” but “worked around the clock all day including participating in the President’s meeting with his national security council” after being confronted with the photographs. Peter Baker at the New York Times writes,

In effect, [the Obama Administration] has accepted Mr. Morsi’s ouster and is not seeking to restore him, reasoning that in fact it could turn out for the best if the military quickly brought about new elections.

Problems Are Still Unresolved
Violence continued on Friday as security forces and anti-Morsi demonstrators clashed with Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Demonstrators were killed trying to hang a picture of Morsi at the Republican Guard barracks where Morsi was reportedly being held. By Saturday, large-scale violence tapered off and the two sides appeared to reach an uneasy truce, but tensions remained high. As Mansour met on Saturday met with the transition team, Muslim Brotherhood supporters staged a sit-in in Cairo in support of Morsi.

A senior official in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Abdullah Shehatah said, “The people here and in all of Egypt’s squares are ready for martyrdom to restore legitimacy… This coup and all its institutions are illegal.” The Brotherhood had been invited to the meeting with Mansour, but refused.

READ MORE:

• Tamer El-Ghobashy, Matt Bradley and Charles Levinson, The Wall Street Journal: Egypt’s New Leaders Retreat from Naming ElBaradei
• CBS News: Egypt Military Gives 48 Hours to Reach Agreement with Opposition, or Face Political Transition
• Carina Kamel, al Arabiya: Egypt’s Economic Woes Deepen as Mursi Marks One Year in Office
• Noah Feldman, Bloomberg: Don’t Blame Islam for the Failure of Egypt’s Democracy
• White House (press release): Statement by President Barack Obama on Egypt
• Jake Miller, CBS News: John Kerry on His Boat During Egypt Upheaval, State Dept. Concedes
• Peter Baker, New York Times: Egypt Crisis Finds Washington Largely Ambivalent and Aloof
• CBS News: Egypt’s New President Asserts Authority
• Andrew McCarthy, National Review: Elections Are Not Democracy