Top U.S. Official Due in Cairo, EU 'Deeply Concerned' over Unrest
A top U.S. official was heading to Cairo on Sunday for talks with interim government leaders, the first high-ranking administration member to visit Egypt since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, as the EU voiced "deep concern" over the situation in the country.
Under Secretary of State Bill Burns will visit Egypt from Sunday to Tuesday, the State Department said, adding that he would "underscore U.S. support for the Egyptian people."
The news came as caretaker premier Hazem al-Beblawi resumed talks on forming his cabinet, 11 days after Morsi was ousted in a July 3 military coup amid massive protests against his year-long rule.
Prominent liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who assisted in the talks Beblawi began a day earlier with ministerial candidates, was Sunday sworn in as interim vice president for foreign relations, the presidency said.
In a brief statement, the State Department said Burns would "meet with interim government officials as well as civil society and business leaders.
"In all these meetings, he will underscore U.S. support for the Egyptian people, an end to all violence, and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government."
On Friday, the U.S. for the first time called for Morsi's release, and again condemned a wave of arbitrary arrests of members of his Muslim Brotherhood.
But since the July 3 ouster, Washington has struggled to define whether Egypt's first democratically elected president was the victim of a coup, which would legally force a freeze on some $1.5 billion in vital military and economic U.S. assistance to Cairo.
Meanwhile, ,EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Sunday said the 28-member bloc was following developments in Egypt with "deep concern", deploring recent violence and calling for prompt elections.
"The EU is following the recent developments in Egypt with deep concern," Ashton said in a statement, adding that "the military must accept and respect the constitutional authority of the civilian power."
She also stressed "the importance of holding democratic elections in the shortest possible time" and called for dialogue between all political groups committed to democracy.
"The EU urges the interim authorities to make every effort so that politically motivated arrests and other forms of harassments do not take place," she said, adding that "all political detainees must be released, and criminal cases reviewed swiftly in a transparent manner."
Source: Agence France Presse
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