DEBKAfile
August 16, 2013
When the clashes between Egyptian security forces and pro-Morsi
protesters were at their peak in Cairo Wednesday, Aug. 14 – 525 dead and
3,700 wounded to date – President Barack Obama put in a call to Egypt’s
strongman, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, DEBKAfile’s
intelligence sources report.
The US president wanted to give the
general a dressing-down much on the lines of the call he made to former
president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 at the high point of the Arab
Spring Tahrir Sq demonstrations against his rule, namely: Stop
repressing the protesters and firing live ammunition. Step down!
When Mubarak asked for a three or four days’ grace to break up the massed rally, Obama shot back that he has to quit NOW!
And indeed, on Feb. 11, the army announced the president’s resignation.
Realizing what was coming, Gen. El-Sissi decided not to accept
President Obama’s call, our sources report. The Egyptian officials who
received it informed the US president politely that the right person for
him to address was Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour and they
would be glad to transfer the call to him. The White House callers
declined.
Full story here.
