Let’s hope that President Barack Obama has grown thick skin in office, because today could be a tough one for him. After his Cairo speech in 2009 reaching out to the Muslim world; after his support for the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt, after all the aid subsequently given to President Mohammed Morsi; after Ambassador Anne Patterson’s best efforts to discourage anti-Morsi demonstrators; after threatening to cut off aid to the military government because it arrested senior Muslim Brothers; after urging the military to include everyone, read Islamists, in the transitional government…
After all that, the vice president of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party accuses the United States of responsibility for Morsi’s overthrow. I mean, this is just too unfair!
Unfair, but all too true:
Vice President of the Freedom and Justice Party Essam al-Erian on Monday called on Egyptians to besiege the US Embassy in a session of the dissolved Shura Council held at a hall near to the Rabaa al-Adaweya Mosque.
Nothing personal against embassy staff and their families, you understand:
‘We hope the diplomats will not be exposed to any harm, but we want them out of the country. We do not want them on our land,’ said Erian, adding that the American role in what he called ‘the military coup’ in Egypt is clear.
Nor is this simply an empty threat; at least, the Egyptian military aren’t taking it that way:
The embassy and all roads leading to it are totally secure and the government won’t allow it to be attacked, said Adel-Fattah Osman, assistant to the interior minister.
Poor misunderstood Obama! But wait, maybe there’s come way to blame this all on the Republicans…
