Seven people were killed and more than 260 wounded when Islamist supporters of Mohamed Morsi fought opponents of the deposed Egyptian president and security forces, marking a return of violence that overshadowed the naming of an interim cabinet.
Iran on Monday called the Egyptian army\’s ousting of president Mohamed Morsi \”unacceptable\” and said Israel and the West did not want to see a powerful Egypt.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi\’s decision to assume sweeping powers caused fury amongst his opponents and prompted violent clashes in central Cairo and other cities on Friday.
The chants, tear gas and violence emanating from Cairo\’s Tahrir Square evoke the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Protesters talk of a fight to the death with the ruling military council, whose entire transition plan looks shakier than ever.
With popular uprisings having toppled two Arab dictators in the space of just a few weeks and unrest reverberating across the Middle East, are other regimes likely to fall, too? Nearly everywhere in the region, autocratic leaders seem to be on the defensive. Using carrots or sticks, and sometimes both, they’re struggling to curb growing protest movements.
The day after Egypt\’s President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a widespread public uprising, I found myself presenting a lecture about Solidarity, the mass trade union movement that convulsed Poland 30 years ago and paved the way for the collapse of the Iron Curtain a decade later. It also helped land me in jail in 1983, eventually resulting in my expulsion from Poland.
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