A high-ranking U.S. diplomat is meeting with Egypt’s military-backed government, the first such meetings since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi earlier this month.

Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns arrived in Cairo for talks Monday and Tuesday, meeting first with interim Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, as Egypt remains bitterly divided over its future.

Morsi’s supporters and leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood have been staging daily protests outside Cairo’s Rabia el-Adawiya Mosque, demanding Egypt’s first democratically-elected president be returned to power.

“I am calling for Morsi’s return to his post,” explained Abdel Basset Fahmy, who was among the throngs of demonstrators Monday. “We demand he be reinstated. Also we demand the upper house of parliament that has been dissolved to be back at work.”

Morsi opponents have also been rallying - in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. 

U.S. officials have been stressing the need for a transition to “an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government.”  The State Department says Deputy Secretary Burns will also meet with civil society and business leaders. 

A spokesman for the Salafi Nour Party indicated that Burns had asked for a meeting with his group, which was “studying the request.”

Also Monday, Egyptian authorities said suspected militants attacked a bus carrying factory workers in the north Sinai town of El-Arish, killing at least three people and wounding 17 others.  The Sinai Peninsula has seen a rise in violence since Morsi’s July 3 ouster.

Egypt’s top general gave a nationally televised speech Sunday, defending the decision to remove Morsi as a response to what he called the will of the people.

General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Morsi had lost legitimacy because of mass protests by his opponents, and rejected accusations that the move was religiously motivated.

Morsi has been held at an undisclosed location since his removal, while a number of senior Muslim Brotherhood members have been taken into custody.  Authorities have not charged the former president with a crime, but say they are investigating a series of complaints against him including spying and wrecking the economy.

Egyptian judicial sources said Sunday the public prosecutor ordered the freezing of assets of 14 prominent Islamists, including Brotherhood supreme leader Mohamed Badie. [Read More]

—–
Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance