Egypt conspiracy was managed internationally by US: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohamed Sharaf, a member of the Conscience Front, from Cairo.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Let me ask you about the US’ stance, which in a sense has been a flip-flop, when you first have the US coming out saying [ousted Egyptian President Mohamed] Morsi has to be released, didn’t call it a coup and then [US Secretary of State John] Kerry coming out and saying that Egyptians have a second chance at democracy with the coup, while calling it a coup with the most recent visit, notably by the senators that we had there. How to you assess US’ positioning here?

Sharaf: The US had been a primary in the coup, in the arrangement for the coup, but it had been not just after Morsi became a president – it is right after the Egyptian revolution in 2011. They were taken by surprise; they didn’t believe that there would be a revolution; so they started their work. The SCAF, the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces at that time, took care of all the demands of dismantling the revolution and bringing it back to square one.

So, the US is part of the coup, the American ambassador was there right at the time of the coup with the commander of the armed forces asking President Morsi to abrogate and sign for his abrogation and resign, but President Morsi by his refusal and him becoming obstinate and in this case that is the start of the coup to fail; it didn’t go as they had expected. They thought that President Morsi is soft and they could gain his resignation. So, that is how the coup didn’t [work]. Also, they didn’t expect the amount of masses and the resistance in the streets. The coup failed the moment they started the bloodshed. The coup represents the most violent act that you can apply on people; you are stealing their democracy, you are taking their votes, you are stampeding on their ballots and their values, and saying we go back to zero.

The only gain that we gained from the Egyptian revolution in 2011 was the democratic process that we started and it is not the Muslim brothers – like some people imagined – who are out in the streets. It’s old factions of Egyptians that are on the streets, they are in Raba’a (a mosque in Cairo) and they increase day by day because people now started to realize the deceit that they had been suffering for a year and the psychological warfare that was against Egypt.

Now we come to the point, my colleague in London is saying negotiations. What negotiations? Are they two foreign countries to use foreign emissaries and foreign mediators to bring them together? No, the two factions are unfortunately Egyptians. It is the coup, who resorted to foreign interventions.

What we had in Egypt was a conspiracy; it was managed internationally by the United States and to a lesser extent by the European Union and by some in the [Persian] Gulf State, with the exception of Qatar to be quite honest, and Israel of course. It was run on the Egyptian scene by the SCAF, by what you call the secularists or whoever, it was run by the party of Israel in Egypt. We have a strong party of Zionists in Egypt, Egyptian Zionists, who oppose the Egyptian aspirations and they oppose the regime. That is why now you see Hamas is the enemy of Egypt or the enemy of those who took part in the coup.

But to be quite honest, in all the foreign intervention and mediation that was denied by the government – the government denied that there is any foreign mediation or foreign intervention. Whom do I believe now after the prime minister came saying there is foreign intervention or there is foreign mediation? So, they are really squabbling, they don’t know what to do, I think the coup has failed and they don’t know what to do.

But, the highlight of these visits was the honesty on the part of [EU foreign policy chief, Catherine] Ashton, the moral code, when they asked about President Morsi she said, “I cannot talk in the name of a captive.” Also, when Senator [John] McCain and Senator Lindsey [Graham] named things in the right way; they said what happened in Egypt is a coup and that is why they went mad and that is why you see all these communiqués today about the sit-in and having the sit-in evacuated by force.

Press TV: When our guest Mostafa Ragab talks about Islam, I am going to come in from the angle that Saudi Arabia does not like the Muslim Brotherhood. They feel threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood. Tell us your views behind what Saudi Arabia possibly has done behind the scenes aside from the fact that they have given all this money. Do you think they are the ones who orchestrated this coup? Of course you said it is the US who has done this.

Sharaf: Sure. Quite frankly it is Saudi Arabia and the Emirates [who] had been running the scene regionally by supporting and funding and acquiescing to the United State’s claims. But, really I find my Egyptian colleague’s talk in London misleading – it is not the talk about Islam at all, you know. This is the rhetoric that we have been hearing for quite [a] long [time]. People in Raba’a are not Islamists at all you know. If you go and check, you find the majority don’t belong to any Islamic section, they don’t belong to the Muslim Brotherhood; of course there is the Muslim Brotherhood there, but now every sector of the Egyptians are there.

Regarding the word coup, I would refer my colleague in London to go to the dictionaries and to go to Wikipedia and see what could be the definition of a coup. If what happened in Egypt is not a coup, then the African Union would have a coup everyday in every African state. That is why the African Union was the first to be alarmed by the coup in Egypt. Also, I would ask my colleague in London what if I go with you and take his office in London? Should we start negotiations and see which room would he leave and so on?

No, our democratic process had been stampeded on and that is [what] we are not going to give up, all the Egyptians are not going to give up; they will continue. Even if they take the Raba’a; that there is a sit-in, by whatever way – that is not the end. That is stupid to think it is the end. It will never be the end; the end is to return to the democratic process.

If you had the vote, like my colleague in London is saying, and you had the popular support, why didn’t you go to the parliamentary election? My colleague lives in London and knows that the democratic process is mainly run under the parliament, not by the president or whoever.