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Egyptian soldiers deployed close to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, pictured on May 21, 2013/AFP

Africa

Egypt opposition gives Morsi day to quit

As Morsi stood firm and insisted the only way forward was dialogue, calls for army intervention increased.

Tamarod urged state institutions to support the protesters, calling on “the army, the police and the judiciary to clearly side with the popular will as represented by the crowds”.

Opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi urged military intervention if Morsi refused to quit.

The army, which led a tumultuous transition after Mubarak’s ouster, had already warned it would intervene if there was major unrest.

“The armed forces must act, because they have always been on the side of the people” which “has expressed its will”, said Sabbahi, who came third in last year’s presidential election.

The best outcome would be for Morsi to go willingly, he added.

But Morsi’s spokesman Ehab Fahmy told reporters: “Dialogue is the only way through which we can reach an understanding… The presidency is open to a real and serious national dialogue.”

Overnight, as protesters pelted the Muslim Brotherhood building in Cairo with petrol bombs, Brotherhood supporters responded with birdshot.

An AFP journalist also reported automatic weapons fire.

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In Tahrir Square, where hundreds of protesters spent the night, demonstrators blew whistles and chanted anti-Morsi slogans.

Outside the presidential palace, hundreds more staged a sit-in after the army estimated that millions had heeded the opposition call to protest.

Sunday’s turnout was described as the largest protest in Egyptian history.

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