Shafiq will not run for presidency if Al-Sisi nominates himself

Former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq

In an interview with Dream TV’s El Ashera Masa’an (10pm) hosted by Wael Al-Ibrashy on Sunday night, former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq said that he will not run for presidency if  his opposing candidate is General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, despite increasing pressure to nominate himself.

Shafiq affirmed that he called Al-Sisi on the phone after the ousting of former president Mohamed Morsi to “congratulate him”.

Shafiq also said that he was “more useful in the process of toppling the Muslim Brotherhood regime with my being in Abu Dhabi, even more than if I was in Egypt.” He asserted that Egypt is living a phase of “terrorising the citizens,”  but that it will end in eight to ten months.

Shafiq, who was also a prime minister under SCAF, said that there was a prominent politician who played a Gorbachev-like role in dividing Egypt, comparing him to Mikhail Gorbachev’s alleged role in dissolving the Soviet Union.

Shafiq added that he told former defense minister and at the time, the country’s leader, Mohamed Hussien Tantawy, that if the Brotherhood was in control, their plan would be to divide Egypt into several countries. Shafiq declared that he is against totally isolating any political faction, including the Brotherhood, “except for those who have criminal charges”. He, however, refused any talks of reconciliation with the Brotherhood as an organisation.

Shafiq said that he called the Minister of Interior, Mohamed Ibrahim, twice. The first time being before 30 June 2013 when he told Ibrahim that “he condemns the way the Ministry of Interior deals with the Egyptian people [under Morsi]“. Shafiq alleged that this phone call was recorded and sent to the Brotherhood’s supreme guide deputy Khairat El-Shater and Morsi by former deputy head of Homeland Security, who was later removed from his post after the Brotherhood regime was toppled.

The former aviation minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak added that his second phone call with Ibrahim was to apologise for his previous comments.

Shafiq said that Ibrahim asked him to convey to the United Arab Emirates the need to support Egypt’s security forces, which they eventually did.

Shafiq declared his “innocence in the cases filed against him” as they were filed by Brotherhood-incited judges; however, he announced that he will not return to Egypt until his final verdict of innocence is issued.

Shafiq expressed his appreciation of the Salafis, claiming that had he been elected to the presidency in 2012 he would have appointed three Salafi ministers and a Salafi vice-president.

Shafiq told Al-Ibrashy that he prefers the single-voting system in parliamentary elections “as party lists may result in the return of the Brotherhood regime”. He maintained that presidential elections should be held before the parliamentary elections.

Shafiq was aviation minister under Mubarak, and was appointed by him as prime minister on 28 January 2011. He resigned from his position in April 2011. Heran for presidency in 2012 and lost by a slim margin to Morsi in the final runoff.