International reaction to the Egyptian military's crackdown against protest camps Wednesday morning was swift and strident, with Turkish leaders who are ideologically close to the ousted President Mohammed Morsi calling the move a "massacre" and regional diplomats saying the escalating violence was worrisome for Middle East stability.
Television viewers across the Middle East watched nonstop footage that kicked off when Egypt's security operation started around 7 a.m. The graphic images of Egyptian armored bulldozers sweeping away dirt defense formations and plastic tents at the antimilitary sit-ins struck a chord across many parts the Middle East, where viewers are more used to equating such actions to Israeli military operations against Palestinians.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office posted a statement on its website urging the United Nations to intervene. It castigated the international community for sanctioning the coup that forced Mr. Morsi from office and turning its back on democratic values.
"It is clear that the international community, instead of defending democracy and what is constitutionally legitimate in Egypt, has encouraged the current administration for the intervention today by supporting the military coup and remaining silent in the face of the previous massacre," Mr. Erdogan's office said in the statement. "The international community, especially the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League, should immediately take action to stop this massacre."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence "in the strongest terms," a spokesman said, adding the Mr. Ban regretted that Egyptian authorities chose to use force against the demonstrations. Diplomats said the U.N. Security Council had no plans to meet on events in Egypt, which is considered an internal matter and is not formally on the council's agenda. Any council member could choose to raise the matter informally, a diplomat said.
The White House called for restraint and said the Obama administration continued to review U.S. aid to the country. "The United States strongly condemns the use of violence against protesters in Egypt," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday. "The violence will only make it more difficult to move Egypt forward."
In London and Brussels, officials expressed their concern over the quickly moving events in Cairo but didn't offer advice on how to end the standoff.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned about escalating violence," and condemned the use of force. The spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called for restraint from the Egyptian authorities.
"Only a concerted effort by all Egyptians and the international community might lead the country back on a path to inclusive democracy, and overcome Egypt's challenges," Ms. Ashton said later Wednesday. "Today's violence, the declaration of the state of emergency, and the decision by Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei to resign will not create the right environment for this to happen."
Egyptian troops staged a crackdown on protesters that turned deadly Wednesday morning in efforts to clear two antigovernment sit-ins in Cairo, prompting Egypt’s interim president to declare a state of emergency. Jeff Grocott has more. Photo: Getty Images.
Qatar's foreign ministry, which was part of an international diplomatic push last week, urged authorities in Cairo to "refrain from the security option in dealing with peaceful protests and to preserve the lives of Egyptians at protest sites," according to the state news agency.
In Syria, where the local Muslim Brotherhood branch is among the main opposition factions battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, there was notable satisfaction in state media outlets with the bloody crackdown under way in Egypt.
"The Muslim Brotherhood has exposed its fangs and its time to for the [Egyptian] army to pull them out," said a report on Syrian state television aired during the channel's main evening news bulletin. State television also mourned the loss of what it called "martyrs" in Egypt, referring to the Egyptian security forces killed on Wednesday.
"The current developments in Egypt open the possibility of a civil war in one of the biggest Muslim countries," according to a statement released by official Iranian media. Iran's "foreign ministry invites all sides to self-restraint and warns that given the current ongoing crisis in the region the fallout from further violence in Egypt could be dangerous and disastrous."
In parts of the Middle East that warmly welcomed the coup ousting Mr. Morsi last month, such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, there was no immediate response to what Egyptian officials called a security operation. An official in the UAE said the time wasn't appropriate to weigh in on what the Emirati rulers considered a "domestic matter."
Both Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis sent troops and weapons to the small island nation of Bahrain in 2011 to help crack down against antigovernment protests there. Bahraini security forces moved against demonstrators occupying a central square in much the same way that Egyptian forces did on Wednesday morning. That crackdown ended the popular uprising in Bahrain and led to the arrest and conviction of many political opposition leaders.
