Joint Morsi-Military Statement Canceled; Morsi Asks Military to Cancel Coup;
Morsi On Television Right Now

Not your television, silly. Egyptian TV. Update: The speech in progress at Al Jazeera's website, thanks to Niedermeyer's Dead Horse (@mflynny). Also from NDH, a feed which has been quoting Morsi. He won't stop yapping about "legitimacy." It's his version of "false choice."

He's already asked the military to withdraw their 48 hour ultimatum, but that's really asking them to cancel their coup, which sounds sort of funny.

There was word earlier that the president and the military would announce a joint statement -- suggesting that perhaps they'd reached some kind of agreement. But that seems to have been an erroneous report; it's just Morsi who'll be giving a statement.

The embattled president called for the Egyptian Army to withdraw a statement in which it extended Morsi 48 hours to defuse the mass protests that have rocked the country since this weekend or face military intervention. Morsi also called for rejecting foreign interference in the developing situation.

I like that last part-- these embattled Islamist tyrants always suggest it's "foreign" elements stirring up trouble, by which they usually mean Jews. Erdogan has been playing this card for a while.

Morsi says he's not going anywhere:

"President Mohammed Morsi asserts his grasp on constitutional legitimacy and rejects any attempt to deviate from it, and calls on the armed forces to withdraw their warning and refuses to be dictated to internally or externally," a tweet from the Egyptian presidency account said, according to Reuters.

The military, on the other hand, says he is going somewhere:

Morsi is now on TV:

I can't see the address, but this seems to sum it up:

Hey baby remember what good times we had in 2011? Let's not give that up, baby.

Reports had gone out that Obama was urging Morsi to agree to hold early elections. But the White House denies they would do something so useful.

The White House on Tuesday pushed back on a report that American officials are urging Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to call early elections, in response to the largest anti-government demonstrations Egypt has ever witnessed. The comments seem intended to reduce any perception that Washington is trying to dictate a course of action to the Egyptian leadership.

posted by Ace at 05:47 PM

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