Broad international condemnation of killings in Egypt

Turkey has urged the UN Security Council and Arab League to act quickly to stop a “massacre” in Egypt and Iran has warned of the risk of civil war, after Egyptian security forces killed dozens of Islamist demonstrators.

European leaders criticised the violence against a camp of protesters seeking the restoration of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, calling for restraint and a return to meaningful dialogue to defuse Egypt’s political stand-off.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore said he deplored the loss of life.

“I appeal for the authorities to show restraint and for all involved to refrain from violence,” he said.

In July, Mr Gilmore used stronger language than any other western government to describe the ousting of president Mohammed Morsi, which he referred to as a “military coup”.

Other European governments and the US have shied away from referring to Morsi’s overthrow as a coup. “I don’t think anyone who values democracy can be very happy about what is in effect a military coup in Egypt,” Mr Gilmore said.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said international passivity had paved the way for the military-backed Egyptian government’s crackdown, which also included violence in areas beyond the capital.

“It is clear that the international community, by supporting the military coup [that ousted Morsi on July 3rd], and remaining silent over previous massacres instead of protecting democracy and constitutional legitimacy in Egypt, has encouraged the current administration to carry out today’s intervention.

“The international community, especially the UN Security Council and Arab League, must act immediately to stop this massacre,” Mr Erdogan, whose government is Islamist-rooted, said in a statement.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was following the situation with great concern.

“Confrontation and violence is not the way forward to resolve key political issues. I deplore the loss of lives, injuries and destruction in Cairo and other places in Egypt. I call on the security forces to exercise utmost restraint and on all Egyptian citizens to avoid further provocations and escalation,” she said in a statement.

Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Norway all appealed for mutual restraint by Egypt’s factions and for negotiations to resolve the crisis. Britain said it had advised its citizens visiting Egypt to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings.

“It is essential that violence stop and conciliation prevail. France calls on all sides to show restraint and hold back from disproportionate use of force,” French foreign ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani said.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence used by Egyptian security forces to clear Cairo of protesters. While the UN was still gathering information, it said it appeared hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in the latest clashes between security forces and demonstrators, according to a statement by the secretary-general’s spokesperson.

‘Extremely worried’

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said the government was “extremely worried” about the “very dangerous” escalation of violence in Egypt, indirectly criticising the leadership for its crackdown at the same time urging an end to violence.

“We expect from the transitional government and the Egyptian authorities that they allow peaceful demonstrations just as we expect from the other political forces that they distance themselves clearly from violence, that they don’t demand violence and don’t act violently.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said the “decisive principle” must be “that the human rights of all Egyptians, independent of their political direction and conviction, have to be respected and protected.”

Italian foreign minister Emma Bonino appealed to all sides in Egypt to do what they can to immediately stop the explosion of violence and “avoid a bloodbath”.

Ms Bonino expressed deep sorrow for the loss of human lives. “I had expressed the hope that the squares with the sit-ins be emptied” through an agreement among all sides, and “not with the intervention of police forces, which doesn’t help the search for a solution to the political crisis”, she said.

She added that it was essential that security forces “exercise maximum self-control; likewise, everyone must avoid every incitement to violence”.

Iran, whose hardline Islamist leadership put down post-election unrest by force in 2009, denounced the Egyptian bloodshed and called for a “national dialogue and democratic process”.

In a statement, the foreign ministry expressed deep concern and added: “Undoubtedly the current approach ... strengthens the likelihood of civil war in this great Islamic country.”

Qatar took the lead in Arab criticism of the violence, condemning the attack on the protest camp and urging Egyptians to return to dialogue to ease the crisis polarising the Arab world’s most populous nation.

A Qatari foreign ministry official, quoted by the state news agency QNA, said Egyptian authorities should “refrain from the security option in dealing with peaceful protests, and preserve the lives of Egyptians at protest sites”.

Qatar strongly backed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government before he was ousted by the army a year after becoming the first freely elected leader in Egyptian history.

“Qatar believes that the safest and guaranteed way to resolve the crisis is a peaceful way based on dialogue between parties that have to live together in a pluralist social and political system,” the official said.

Energy-rich Qatar, among the world’s wealthiest states and under authoritarian dynastic rule, gave Egypt $7 billion in aid after Morsi’s election last year following the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

In the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, which arose out of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, said Hamas “condemns the massacres ... and calls for an end to bloodshed and a halt to the killing of peaceful protesters”.

Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood urged its Egyptian peers to continue protests, saying their victory will help the fundamentalist group rise to power elsewhere in the Arab world. A statement by the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, warned Egypt’s military rulers that they have fallen into a “conspiracy” hatched by the US and Israel to weaken Muslims.

Reuters/AP