Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour and several political groups today reacted angrily to US Congressmen John McCain and Lindsey Graham's use of the term 'coup' to refer to the ouster of Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi.
McCain and Graham both labelled the July 3 overthrow of Morsi as a military coup, and called for the release of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, in a meeting yesterday in Cairo with members of the government, the defence minister and supporters of Morsi.
According to state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, Mansour condemned the statements made by the senators, calling it an "unacceptable interference in Egypt's domestic affairs."
Spokesman for the April 6 Youth Movement, Ahmed Shawky said the movement rejects McCain's use of the term military coup, calling the senator's statements "interfering with Egypt's affairs."
Shawky said the June 30 protests were "a second wave of the revolution."
Al-Tayar Al-Sha'aby spokeswoman Heba Yassin also termed the congressmen's visit as "political interference with internal affairs of Egypt" and rejected US involvement.
But, not all political groups opposed the statements.
The Brotherhood's political arm, Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) welcomed the statements.
Al-Wasat Party Spokesman Amr Farouk said of McCain's statements, "This is the most courageous statement the American administration has said, this is the truth."
Farouk added that the US calling the current situation a military coup is "brave."
FJP spokesman Mohamed Soudan said the senators' statements were "a step in the right direction" but they came late and have no influence on the ground.
Soudan said the US should begin treating Egypt the way its own constitution requires it to treat a country that has undergone a military coup, citing that the US should cut its aid and end communication with the Egypt's current government.
Soudan said the US always tries to hold the middle ground, when it should rather release an official statement identifying what took place as a military coup.
