Egypt army lashes out at Brotherhood over Cabinet

CAIRO- Agence France-Presse

Egypt’s ruling generals lashed out at the Muslim Brotherhood over its questioning of the military’s continued support of the cabinet, while urging the Islamists “to look to the future with the spirit of cooperation.”

The military in a statement expressed “extreme indignation” over Brotherhood comments on March 24 that questioned its motives in supporting the government, which the Islamists accuse of stalling the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

It also called “on all to be aware of history’s lessons, to avoid past mistakes we do not want to see repeated, and to look to the future with the spirit of cooperation.” In an its unusually strongly worded statement on March 25, the Brotherhood said the government’s performance had been the “biggest failure,” pointing to unrest, judicial interference, stalling of reforms, fuel shortages and dwindling foreign reserves.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), has been pressuring the military to sack the cabinet and appoint an FJP-led government after it won a crushing victory in parliamentary elections. But the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power after the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, has stood by the cabinet and its head Kamal Ganzuri. “When we called for the resignation of the government, its head refused, and this was unfortunately supported by the military council,” the Brotherhood said in its statement.

“If anyone intends to recreate the former corrupt regime with new faces, the people are willing to move in order to revive their revolution and protect their ship from sinking at the hands of people with no sense of responsibility,” it said.