Nader Bakkar (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Salafist Al-Nour party spokesman Nader Bakkar says the position President Mohamed Morsi announced at the Cairo Stadium's indoor venue Saturday night contradicts earlier statements Morsi made.
"The president’s [new line] is not in line with the statement he made earlier in Moscow on the similarity of the Egyptian and Russian stance [towards Syria]," Bakkar tweeted, referring to Morsi’s agreement in April with Russia on the importance of maintaining channels of communication with the Syrian regime.
During the mass rally attended by 20,000 Islamists, President Morsi announced Egypt was cutting all diplomatic ties with Syria.
"The people of Egypt and its army will not leave Syrians until their rights are granted and a new elected leadership is chosen," said Morsi.
Bakkar charged that the timing of the event held by the presidency adds fuel to the fire for mobilisation and counter-mobilisation before 30 June.
The 'Rebel' 30 June protests are set to demand early presidential elections. 'Rebel' aims to gather 15 million signatures to withdraw confidence in the president - outnumbering the 13.2 million votes that put Morsi into office in the June 2012 presidential elections. The campaign had gathered 7 million signatures by the end of May.
In a phone interview on Al-Qahera Al-Youm television show, Bakkar accused the presidency of using several recent events to mobilise against upcoming anti-government protests.
On Wednesday, a joint press conference of a number of Islamist groups, including Gamaa Islamiya, the centrist Wasat Party, and the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), from which Morsi hails, said they would hold a rally to "denounce violence" on 21 June, warning that figures from the Mubarak regime plan to use violence as part of the opposition protests.
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