Morsi clings to office amid protests and resignations

As the 5pm (GMT) deadline set by the main protest group came and went, President Mohammed Morsi remained in office and rebuffed an army ultimatum to resolve Egypt’s political crisis.

But the Islamist leader looked increasingly isolated with six ministers resigning, including Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, the liberal opposition refusing to talk to him and millions of protesters in the street backing the armed forces, who have given him until Wednesday to agree to share power.

The tens of thousands of people protesting against President Morsi were on Tuesday joined by supporters of the president, urged to take to the streets by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

One FJP leader urged “free revolutionaries” who supported Morsi to prepare for martyrdom.

Fears of violence

Leading protester Khaled Dawoud told Channel 4 News in Cairo, that the president was “living in a bubble” and called on the Muslim Brotherhood to refrain from violence.

“We ask them, we appeal to them, to save the blood of the Egyptian people and to think long-term,” he said. “They still have a political role to play, but not at this particular stage.”

President Morsi had earlier complained that he was not consulted by the general who made the announcement, the presidency said it “sees that some of the statements in it carry meanings that could cause confusion in the complex national environment”.

“The presidency confirms that it is going forward on its path which it planned before to hold comprehensive national reconciliation … in response to the aspirations of the great Egyptian people and regardless of any statements that deepen divisions between citizens,” it said.

President Morsi spoke to US President Barack Obama on Monday, stressing that Egypt was moving forward with a peaceful democratic transition based on the law and constitution.

The White House said that President Obama had encouraged him to respond to the protests and “underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process”.