U.S. Sought Delay of Morsi’s Ouster, Egyptian Leader Says

NY Times, by David K. Kirkpatrick

CAIRO — Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who is poised to be elected Egypt’s president in next month’s elections, said in an interview broadcast Tuesday night that the American ambassador had asked him to hold off “for a day or two” before ousting the freely elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, last July.

Mr. Sisi said he had rebuffed the request, from Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, who is now the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

His remarks, in the second part of a lengthy interview with two talk show hosts, was his first public confirmation that he had discussed the prospect of a military takeover with American officials in the days before it was carried out.

American officials and Morsi advisers have said that Obama administration officials and United States diplomats had sought until the final hours before the Morsi government was toppled on July 3 to broker some sort of agreement with Mr. Morsi that might have averted the takeover and subsequent clashes.

A response from the State Department spokeswoman was not immediately available.

Many of Mr. Sisi’s supporters accuse Washington of actively supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, in part because the Obama administration dealt with Mr. Morsi as the country’s legitimate leader.

But when pressed by his interviewers about that position, Mr. Sisi declined to endorse it.

Instead, he expressed some appreciation of the view among some in Washington that Mr. Morsi’s removal was a “coup.” He said he had urged United States officials to try to see it differently: “Look at us with Egyptian eyes.”

“Don’t apply your culture, your regimes and your development” in evaluating Egypt, Mr. Sisi added, and he predicted improved relations after the coming elections.

At another point, Mr. Sisi said he had warned a senior United States official as early as March of last year that he believed the Brotherhood’s “time was up,” although he also said he held out hope until the afternoon of July 2 that Mr. Morsi might accept a referendum on his exit rather than imprisonment in a military jail.