Egypt cuts relations with Assad government

Associated Press

CAIRO

Egypt’s Islamist president announced Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus’ embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a “holy war” against Syria’s embattled regime.

Mohammed Morsi told thousands of supporters at a rally in Cairo that his government also was withdrawing the Egyptian charge d’affaires from Damascus. He called on Lebanon’s Hezbollah to leave Syria, where the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group has been fighting alongside troops loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad against the mostly Sunni rebels.

“Hezbollah must leave Syria. This is serious talk: There is no business or place for Hezbollah in Syria,” said Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president. Assad’s regime, he said, will have no place in the future of Syria after committing what Morsi called “horrors” against its people.

Morsi’s address, particularly his call on Hezbollah to leave Syria, and the fiery rhetoric used by well-known Muslim clerics this weekend point to the increasing perception of the Syrian conflict as sectarian. At least 93,000 people have been killed since turmoil there began more than two years ago.