Egypt’s leader forewarns country’s military

Egyptians climb a palm tree and a light pole to watch Egypt’s President-elect Mohammed Morsi at Tahrir Square in Cairo during his speech Friday.
Egyptians climb a palm tree and a light pole to watch Egypt’s President-elect Mohammed Morsi at Tahrir Square in Cairo during his speech Friday.

— In front of tens of thousands of cheering supporters, Egypt’s first Islamist and civilian president-elect vowed Friday to fight for his authority and symbolically read an oath of office on Cairo’s Tahrir Square on the eve of his official inauguration.

Mohammed Morsi’s strongly worded speech was a show of defiance as he gears up for a power struggle with the country’s ruling generals, who passed a constitutional declaration taking over major presidential powers in the days before election results were announced after a bitter campaign.

“Everybody is hearing me now. The government, the military and the police. ... No power above this power,” he said as the crowd roared. “I reaffirm to you I will not give up any of the president’s authorities. I can’t afford to do this. I don’t have that right to that.

“You are the source of legitimacy, and whoever is protected by anyone else will lose,” he told his supporters.

He also addressed popular demands, vowing to work for the release of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik jailed in the U.S. for a plot to blow up New York landmarks, as well as detained Egyptian protesters facing military tribunals.

“I will do my best to free all detainees, including Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman,” he said, pointing to a group of protesters holding a poster of the spiritual leader of men convictedin the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Morsi, a 60-year-old, U.S.-trained engineer, narrowly defeated Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister and a former air force general, in a runoff race that deeply polarized the nation. Initially put forward as a backup candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi addressed the crowd with a booming voice, flanked by several security guards.

His victory has given Islamists a new boost after they overcame decades of suppression and arrests under Mubarak’s secular regime to become Egypt’s most influential post-revolutionary political force. However, the militaryhas fought to check the Brotherhood’s rise and maintain its hold on the reins of power.

At one point he opened his jacket to show the crowd he wasn’t wearing a bullet-resistant vest, saying he “fears no one but God.”

The speech sent Republican Guard forces back to the square - a rare occurrence as government security forces have shunned the area to avoid provoking protesters angry over continued military influence.

Many protesters had called for Morsi to hold his swearing-in ceremony in the square, the epicenter of mass protests that ousted Mubarak, but the generals said it must be heldin front of a high court, in the absence of a parliament. The ceremony was scheduled to be held today.

However, he read an informal oath during his speech to the delight of the crowd. Many chanted, “We love you Morsi” and “Oh, marshal, tell the truth, Morsi is your president, or not,” referring to the head of the ruling military panel Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

The ruling generals have promised to transfer power to an elected president by Sunday. But they also have given themselves sweeping powers that undercut the authority of the president. The constitutional declaration - issued days before the winner of a runoffvote was announced - also designated the generals the country’s legislature in place of the disbanded parliament.

The disbanding of the parliament forced Morsi to take his oath in front of the Constitutional Court, which ruled against the parliament and whose judges were appointed by Mubarak.

He also reached out to the liberal and secular activists who spearheaded last year’s uprising.

“The revolution continues ... with an elected president who leads the ship of the nation and leads the revolution,” he said.

Also Friday, Egyptian security forces seized a large stash of weapons, including rockets and automatic machine guns, smuggled into the country from neighboring Libya and purportedly bound for the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s interior minister said.

Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim said security forces acting on a tip uncovered the weapons in a car and truck on the highway near the Mediterranean resort city of Marsa Matrouh, which is along the coastal highway that runs to the Libyan border. After chasing down the vehicles, one of the smugglers was killed in an exchange of fire.

Among the munitions confiscated were 138 Grad rockets and about 7,000 rounds of ammunition, according to Ibrahim, who called the bust the “biggest” in the history of the Interior Ministry.

Information for this article was contributed by writers of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 8 on 06/30/2012

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