Egyptian SCAF reiterates to hand over Power on July 1

Egypt’s military rulers have said they are committed to handing over power to a civilian administration on July 1.

The announcement on Thursday came a day after 11 people died in an attack on an anti-military protest outside the defense ministry in Cairo.

Major General Mohammed al-Assar, a senior official in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, also guaranteed that presidential election scheduled for May 23-24 will be fair.

“We are committed to fair elections 100 percent. We don’t have any candidates. All the candidates are respectable Egyptians,” Assar told a news conference.

Assar’s comments appear to address charges by politicians that the military plans to use the clashes as a pretext to ignore the July 1 deadline.

Assar, an aide to the defense minister, said the security forces had intervened “positively” to stop the bloodshed and to ensure stability.

“Egypt is in danger… Everyone must realize this danger,” he said.

“I propose an initiative to all political parties and religious leaders to go to Abbassiya and try to persuade the youths to leave Abbassiya,” he said referring to the Cairo district in which Wednesday’s clashes occurred.

“Go to Tahrir Square… to stay away from the defense ministry because we don’t want to use any violence against our youths,” he added.

Cairo’s Tahrir Square was the epicenter of the massive protest movement that eventually forced Mubarak to hand over power to the military, led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rajeh, reporting from Cairo said: “The military council did not outright apologies for what happened yesterday.

“They did, however, express sorrow over the loss of lives, saying Egyptian blood is very precious and should not be shed except in defending the nation.”