CFR Update: Egypt Military Chief Warns of Collapse of State

Daily News Brief January 29, 2013

Top of the Agenda: Egypt Military Chief Warns of Collapse of State

Political turmoil in Egypt heightened on Tuesday after the chief of the armed forces gave a stark warning that the current crisis could lead to "a collapse of the state" (al-Jazeera)

. The statement came after a large military deployment in three cities along the Suez Canal, where a state of emergency has been declared and where more than fifty people have died in six days of protests and violence. The warning sent a powerful message (Reuters) about the state of alarm in Egypt's biggest institution regarding the challenges facing Mohammed Morsi, who is struggling to fix a teetering economy and needs to prepare Egypt for an upcoming parliamentary meant to cement the new democracy.

Analysis

"The absence of any post-Mubarak consensus over Egypt's governance — a situation for which the military, the Islamists and the secular opposition all bear some measure of responsibility, even if there may be considerable debate on how to apportion it — currently precludes even reaching an agreement on how to tackle mob violence

on the streets. Agreeing on a package that sharpens economic pain to many millions seems a Herculean challenge," writes Tony Karon for TIME.

"The odds that Morsi will be able to turn the Egyptian economy around are not favorable, but with the help of Qatar and the West, Egypt should be able to plug enough holes

to stay afloat and keep the regime in control, meaning that it is the West helping keep an anti-Western, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organization in power," writes Ariel Ben Solomon for the Jerusalem Post.

"Many here believe the soccer verdicts unfairly tainted the city. They claim security forces linked to Mubarak loyalists instigated the melee to disrupt Egypt's transition

. The government in Cairo is reviled these days even by the besieged local police, who on Sunday barred Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim from funerals for two slain officers," writes Jeffrey Fleishman for the Los Angeles Times.