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EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton: “Only an inclusive will work.”
Egypt’s factions must find a way to bridge their differences and pave the way for a political solution that involves all sides if the country is to leave its current chaos behind, the European Union’s top diplomat said Tuesday.
“Only an inclusive process will work,” EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton told reporters Tuesday after visiting with the country’s deposed president, current leaders, Muslim Brotherhood members and others during a brief trip. “And though I recognize that is challenging, it is really important to begin now,” she said. Egypt has suffered from sporadic violence since the July 3 military coup that removed President Mohamed Morsi from power on the heels of mass protests against his rule. He is being held at an undisclosed military facility on a variety of criminal charges.
Most recently, violent clashes between security forces and protesters in Cairo on Saturday left dozens of Morsi supporters dead, and officials have threatened to disband a sit-in of the former president’s supporters — an act that could spur yet more bloodshed. Several Egyptian human rights groups demanded in a statement released Tuesday that Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim resign over the Saturday incident and demanded that government forces refrain from further violence.
