Egypt's Mansour: Ready to declare talks a failure

Egypt's military-led president plans to say Wednesday mediation efforts to peacefully end a standoff with Islamists have failed, a state-run newspaper reported. Interim President Adly Mansour plans to issue a statement saying the crisis talks that began last week to end two massive Cairo sit-ins by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi -- and to find common ground with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood religious, political and social movement -- fell short, al-Ahram reported Wednesday. The newspaper cautioned the plans could change because the government was actively continuing its "assessment of the situation." Mansour's statement would condemn the U.S., European, Qatari and Emirati attempts at mediation because they failed "to persuade the Muslim Brotherhood on a peaceful solution to the current crisis," the newspaper said. It would conclude the sit-ins since Morsi was ousted July 3 were not peaceful and the brotherhood would "bear responsibility for what is going on," al-Ahram said, citing official sources. Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters have been defying government warnings to abandon the two massive sit-ins in Cairo squares. The protesters are demanding the ousted president's reinstatement. Soldiers and police have killed more than 140 Morsi supporters and wounded hundreds more in two mass shootings. In addition, a growing number of Islamist leaders have been detained, some slapped with criminal charges they say are politicized. If the crisis talks break down, Western governments have said they fear Egypt's security services will try to clear the pro-Morsi protesters, leading to a potential bloodbath. The newspaper report appeared hours after U.S. Sen. John McCain -- one of two senior U.S. senators in Cairo on a White House-requested mediation mission -- said he considered Morsi's removal a military coup. "We have said we share the democratic aspirations and the criticisms of the Morsi government that led millions of Egyptians into the streets," the Arizona Republican told reporters. "We've also said the circumstances of the former government's president's removal were a coup, and we have said that we cannot expect Egypt or any other country to abide by its laws if we do not abide by ours in the United States," he said. Calling the ouster a coup would require Washington by law to suspend its annual $1.5 billion aid package, a move U.S. officials say would further destabilize Egypt. The Obama administration has declined to refer to the ouster as a coup. McCain's remarks, during a visit with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., drew a harsh response from Mansour's office. "John McCain is distorting facts. His clumsy statements are unacceptable in form and substance," presidential aide Ahmed al-Muslimani told al-Ahram's Arabic website Monday evening. State television said Mansour called McCain's comments "an unacceptable interference in internal policies." The Egyptian Foreign Ministry planned an official response, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said. McCain is the first U.S. official visiting Egypt to refer to Morsi's removal as a coup. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week Egypt's military leaders were "restoring democracy" to the country and said last month the country might have avoided a civil war by removing Egypt's first elected president. McCain and Graham have argued publicly Washington should call the ouster a coup, even if the overthrow did follow huge street protests. The senators have said they are not speaking for U.S. President Obama or his administration. McCain and Graham called on civil-disobedient Islamists to renounce violence. But they also called for the swift release of the detained brotherhood officials so they could rejoin the political process. "We are hoping and begging and pleading with the people of Egypt that they will look forward and not backward; that means releasing people so that they can negotiate," Graham said, adding, "It is impossible to talk to somebody who's in jail."