Crisis could cause Egyptian state to collapse says army

Troops deployed in the two riot-torn Suez Canal cities of Port Said and Suez watched as thousands took to the streets in direct defiance of a night curfew and a state of emergency declared by the president a day earlier. Residents of those two cities and Ismailiya, a third city also under the emergency, marched through the streets just as the curfew came into force.

The display of contempt for the president’s decision was tantamount to an outright rebellion that many feared could spread to other parts of the country. Already, protesters across much of Egypt are battling police, cutting off roads and railway lines and besieging government offices and police stations as part of a growing revolt against the rule of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group.

At least 60 people have been killed since Friday.

Mr Morsi’s opponents say Islamists have monopolised power and not lived up to the ideals of the pro-democracy uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.

Army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is both head of the military and defence minister, said: “The continuation of the conflict between the different political forces and their differences over how the country should be run could lead to the collapse of the state and threaten future generations.”

The warning was the military’s first public comment since the latest crisis erupted last week around the second anniversary of the uprising. On Sunday night Mr Morsi ordered the army to restore order in Port Said and Suez and slapped a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew on the two cities as wells as Ismailiya.

The army has not deployed in Ismailiya, however, which has seen little of the deadly violence flaring elsewhere.

The military is Egypt’s most powerful institution and was the de facto ruler since a 1952 coup by army officers seized power and later toppled the monarchy. Generals forced Mubarak from power at the end of the uprising and then a ruling military council took over from him.

The nearly 17 months in power that followed tainted the military’s reputation, with critics charging the ruling generals with mismanaging the transition to democratic rule, human rights violations and hauling thousands of civilians before military tribunals.

The general added: “The deployment of the armed forces poses a grave predicament for us insofar as how we balance avoiding confrontations with Egyptian citizens, their right to protest and the protection and security of vital facilities that impact Egypt’s national security.”