US senators demand Egypt dialogue, release of prisoners

John McCain (C) and Lindsey Graham (L) meet Egypt's Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Two US senators who held talks with Egypt's army chief on Tuesday, have urged the country's divided political factions to renounce violence and agree to a national dialogue .
Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham met with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in the latest leg of a diplomatic flurry to defuse a crisis sparked by the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
At a press conference on Tuesday evening, the two asked Egypt's interim government to set forth a "clear timetable" for holding new elections and finalising a new constitution.
They also urged the government to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood and its political allies.
"You have to sit down and talk to each other, even though you may not like the people at the other side of the table," Graham said.
Both senators described the toppling of Morsi as a coup, a term which US President Barack Obama has avoided.
"It was a transition of power not by the ballot box," Graham said. "The people who were elected are now in jail."
Also on Tuesday, six British MPs held talks with foreign minister Nabil Fahmy, urging the state official to push for Egyptian reconciliation.
As tensions mounted over the looming breakup of two major sit-ins staged by Morsi loyalists, vice president Mohamed ElBaradei urged the Muslim Brotherhood to embrace a peaceful solution and called on the media to stop "demonising" the group.
Morsi has been formally remanded in custody on suspicion of offences committed when he escaped from prison during the 2011 revolt that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
On Tuesday, prosecutors ordered the detention of two of his aides for 15 days pending investigation into deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of the deposed president outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace last December.
Morsi's secretary Ahmed Abdel-Aati and his security advisor Ayman Hodhod join a string of Islamist leaders in jail, including two deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt's political crisis, sparked by the military's July 3 overthrow of Morsi, has paralysed the country and deepened political polarisation and social divisions.
Morsi loyalists, mostly Brotherhood members, say the ouster of the country's first freely elected president violates democratic principles and nothing short of his reinstatement would end their sit-ins.
The interim leadership says there is no turning back on the army-drafted roadmap that provides for new elections in 2014.
More than 250 people have been killed since Morsi's ouster.
"We have been so focused on (the sit-in at) Al-Rabaa al-Adawiya that we can't even concentrate on preparing the electoral process," a senior government official told AFP on Monday.
ElBaradei has urged the Brotherhood not to gamble with the lives of pro-Morsi protesters for political gains and "join the peaceful solutions," in an interview in the daily Al-Shorouk.
"Don't count on the security forces dispersing the sit-ins by force, causing a massacre and turning you into victims, for your negotiations," said ElBaradei.
It "would only increase the people's anger against you."
But the Brotherhood is standing its ground, with more scattered protests and marches in several parts of the capital on Tuesday.
"Only a political solution to restore continuity of constitutional legitimacy will end crisis," tweeted the group's spokesman Gehad al-Haddad.
Since last week, diplomacy tried to prevail.
US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, EU foreign policy supremo Catherine Ashton, EU envoy Bernardino Leon, Arab diplomats, an African delegation and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle have all travelled to Cairo seeking to defuse the crisis.
Leon met Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi on Monday after he and Burns met the day before with the Brotherhood's number two, Khairat al-Shater, in prison.
A State Department spokeswoman said Burns and Leon visited Shater on Sunday, accompanied by the foreign ministers of regional US allies Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
But Brotherhood spokesman Haddad said Shater gave the delegation a cold shoulder.
Shater refused to discuss the situation with the envoys, saying only that the Brotherhood's position on defending Morsi's legitimacy was "unchanged", he said.
Authorities have promised demonstrators a safe exit and said an end to their protests would allow the Brotherhood's return to political life.
Amid the intense talks of recent days, army chief Sisi also met several influential Islamist leaders on Sunday to mediate a solution with the Brotherhood.
But Yasser Ali, a spokesman for the pro-Morsi demonstrators, said the clerics had met Sisi "without having been mandated".
Sisi, who also met Burns during the envoy's visit, has urged Washington to use its "leverage" with the Brotherhood.
Interim foreign minister Fahmy insists the authorities have "no desire to use force if there is any other avenue that has not been exhausted".
Additional source: AFP