The Egyptian army has overthrown
President Mohamed Morsi, announcing a
roadmap for the country’s political future that will be implemented by a national reconciliation committee.

The head of Egypt's armed forces issued a declaration on Wednesday evening suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly al-Mansour, as interim head of state.

Morsi's presidential Facebook page
quoted the deposed president as saying
he rejected the army statement as a
military coup.

In a televised broadcast, flanked by
military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi effectively declared the removal of Morsi.

Sisi called for presidential and
parliamentary elections, a panel to
review the constitution and a national
reconciliation committee that would
include youth movements. He said the
roadmap had been agreed by a range of
political groups.

Morsi was believed to be holed up at a
Republican Guard barracks in Cairo,
surrounded by barbed wire, barriers and
troops, but it was not clear whether he
was under arrest.

Islamist supporters of Morsi who have
gathered in a Cairo suburb reacted
angrily to the announcement by the
army.

Some broke up paving stones, forming
piles of rocks. Muslim Brotherhood
security guards in hard hats and holding
sticks formed a cordon around the
encampment, close to a mosque. Men
and women wept and chanted.
Denouncing military chief Sisi, some
shouted: "Sisi is void! Islam is coming!
We will not leave!"
Speaking shortly after Sisi's
announcement, liberal opposition leader
Mohamed ElBaradei said the 2011
revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak
was relaunched and that the roadmap
meets the demand of the protesters for
early presidential elections.
Egypt's leading Muslim and Christian
clerics also backed the army-sponsored
roadmap.

Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Sheikh of Al-
Azhar, Cairo's ancient seat of Muslim
learning, and Pope Tawadros, the head
of the Coptic Church, both made brief
statements following the announcement by the head of the armed forces.

Tawadros said the plan offered a political vision and would ensure security for all Egyptians, about 10 percent of whom are Christian.

Egypt's second largest Islamist group,
the Nour party, said in a statement that
it agreed to the army roadmap in order
to avoid further conflict.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected
president, came under massive pressure in the run-up to Sunday's anniversary of his maiden year in office, with his opponents accusing him of failing the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in Islamist hands.

The embattled 62-year-old proposed a
"consensus government" as a way out of the country's worst crisis since the 2011 uprising ended three decades of
authoritarian rule by Hosni Mubarak.

But the United States urged Morsi to "do more" as a military deadline passed for him to meet the demands of the people following a week of bloody unrest during mass protests calling for him to quit.

The advice came too late, however, as
the army said al-Mansour, a previously
little known judge, would become the
new leader of the Arab world's most
populous country.

m.aljazeera.com/se/20137319828176718