GENERAL FEARED CIVIL WAR IN EGYPT
• Egypt’s powerful army chief described the Muslim Brotherhood as “arrogant and tyrannical” while deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was in power, saying in an interview published Tuesday that Brotherhood leaders had warned him of “terrorist attacks” if Mr. Morsi were overthrown.
The comments were the first account by General AbdelFattah Al-Sisi of his overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president on July 3. Since then, the military-backed interim government has waged a full-fledged crackdown on the group, accusing top leaders of incitement and murder, rounding up some 2,000 members and killing hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators.
In its latest move at dismantling the sprawling organization, banned by a sweeping court order last month, the government on Tuesday revoked the permit of the as-
His talk irritated me in an unprecedented way
sociation the Brotherhood founded earlier this year to give itself a legal face.
In his interview with AlMasry Al-Youm newspaper, Gen. Al-Sisi said that the turmoil of the past three months could have been avoided if Mr. Morsi had resigned as millions of demonstrators demanded in protests that started on June 30. Days after the protests began, he said, he met with senior Brotherhood figures, including the group’s strongman, Khairat al-Shater.
He said Mr. Al-Shater warned him that the Brotherhood, which made up the backbone of Mr. Morsi’s administration, would not be able to control retaliation by Islamic groups in Sinai and other areas if Mr. Morsi were removed.
“Al-Shater spoke for 45 minutes, vowing terrorist attacks, violence, killings by the Islamic groups,” Gen. Al-Sisi told the paper. “Al-Shater pointed with his finger as if he is shooting a gun.”
“His talk irritated me in an unprecedented way ... because it showed arrogance and tyranny,” Gen. al-Sisi said. “I exploded and said ... ‘What do you want? You either want to rule us or kill us?”
Addressing Islamists now in the wake of Mr. Morsi’s fall, Gen. al-Sisi said, “Watch out while dealing with Egyptians. You have dealt with Egyptians as if you are right and they are wrong ... [as if ] you are the believer and they are the infidels. This is arrogance through faith.”
In the first part of the interview published Monday, Gen. al-Sisi said that he told Mr. Morsi in February, “your project has ended and the amount of antipathy in Egyptians’ souls has exceeded any other regime.” He added that the military’s move against Mr. Morsi was driven by fears of civil war.
“Our assessment was that if we reached the stage of communal infighting and civil war, the military will not be able to stand in front of it, or prevent its repercussions,” he said.
Since Mr. Morsi’s fall, officials and allied media have depicted the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies as a threat to the nation, presenting the crackdown against them as a fight against terrorism. At the same time, there has been an escalation of violence by Islamic militants — many from groups allied to the Brotherhood — with massive attacks targeting security forces in the volatile northern Sinai and other parts of the country.
On Monday, nine soldiers and policemen were killed, and attackers fired a projectile at the country’s main satellite communications station in Cairo, punching a hole in a giant satellite dish. On Tuesday, militants opened fire on a military post in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, state news agency MENA said, killing a soldier and injuring another.
A group calling itself the Furqan Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on the communications station, describing it as part of an ongoing war between “Sunni Muslims and infidels who intended to uproot Islam from the land of Egypt.”
As the interim government moves against the Brotherhood, deadly street violence has continued. On Sunday, 59 people — mostly supporters of Morsi opposing the coup against him — were killed in a heavy security crackdown in Cairo and other governorates.
On Tuesday, security was so intense around planned pro-Morsi protest sites in and around Cairo university that organizers called them off.
A leading Brotherhood figure in exile, Ibrahim Mounier, denounced the dissolving of the Brotherhood’s association, calling it “hasty, illegal and random.”