Egyptian Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Youssef held a press conference on Sunday morning to discuss recent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces outside the ministry building that have now entered their fourth consecutive day.
At the conference, Youssef told journalists that security forces were committed to the highest degree of self restraint so as to avoid casualties among the ranks of protesters. He asserted that security forces were merely defending ministry headquarters, stressing that they had no desire to harm "a single revolutionary.”
Youssef accused protesters of throwing rocks and fireworks at the ministry and plotting to storm and burn down the building despite efforts by security forces to impose calm. The minister went on to say that security forces had only used teargas against protesters.
He also noted that several delegations of activists, politicians and religious clerics had also failed to convince protesters to stop provoking security forces.
On Friday, several MPs and activists – including parliamentarian Ziyad El-Alimy and activist Wael Khalil – tried to forge a truce between the two sides, but failed to do so after being attacked by security forces firing teargas and birdshot.
According to an official statement by the health ministry, seven protesters have been killed and hundreds injured in four days of clashes near the ministry.
Fighting first erupted between protesters and security forces outside the ministry on Thursday, after thousands of activists marched on the ministry to demand justice for those killed in last week’s football violence in Port Said, for which many blamed the interior ministry.
At the press conference, Youssef defended the ministry from these charges, saying that security at the football match had been the sole responsibility of the Port Said Security Directorate.
Youssef concluded by urging those he called “true revolutionaries” to see for themselves whether or not those currently protesting outside the ministry were bona fide revolutionaries. If they were legitimate, he said, they would move their protest to nearby Tahrir Square, the epicentre of last year’s Tahrir Square uprising.
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