Former Egyptian Parliamentarian to Obama: This Is Not a Coup; Don't Back MB, So We Can Still Be Friends

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian TV host and former MP Mohamed Sherdy, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on July 4, 2013.

Mohamed Sherdy: This message is going to the American people before it goes to the American president, Barack Obama.

My name is Mohammad Mustafa Sherdy, I am a previous member of the Egyptian Parliament, deputy opposition leader in the Egyptian Parliament, representing the Wafd Party, member of the International Parliament Union, member of the African Parliament. I have been the international one - the only international observer as a member of the Parliament as a parliamentarian for the elections of Barack Obama, the first elections of Barack Obama. I have been in the States. I have lived in the States. I have been educated in the United States.

Dear Mr. President, dear President Obama. I’m talking to you now regarding the foreign policy that your country is having towards our country, towards Third World countries.

You have always been working for the interests of the United States. The interests of the United States do not collide nor face the interests of the people. You have been backing up the wrong regime before the 25th of January, our first revolution, and then, you backed up, again, the wrong regime, which ruled us and was saying all the time that America is supporting them.

You have backed up a regime that we have rejected and the people have rejected. What happened in Egypt is not a coup by the army. What happened in Egypt is a coup that is civilian, by the people. Yes, we have overthrown our government. We overthrow our government and our regime because we do not want them to rule us.

It is a golden opportunity for the whole world right now to move against groups like this. The Egyptians did not take long to come out and say we do not want such regimes to help us or to rule us, so please, when you talk, when you think, when you sit with your people, to put a new foreign policy - have in your mind that you’re speaking to the people.

The people are the one that will help or the people are the one that will hate. We do not want to hate the United States. We do not want to feel that you are trying to manipulate our future, because our future should be done and should be planned by the Egyptian people.

We now have a new president, a new president that is according to the constitution is ruling the country for three or six months until we have a new presidential election. Help this country, help the people of this country. Do not come and ask us to bring back a group that we do not want.

And then I have another message. This message goes to my previous colleagues in the American Congress. Please, you have been elected by the American people. You have been elected by the American people to uphold the constitution, to work for the freedom of the American people, to work for their best interests. Do not allow anybody in the foreign policy or in the White House to do moves that will ruin the interests of the United States.

Work for the interests of your country, not for the interests of certain regimes. Do help such revolutions that come out civilly, peacefully, to ask for freedom. You are working for the best interests of your country, and we are also trying to get our freedom. We’re trying to have a brighter future. We do not want to be ruled by people who are suppressing us. We do not want that, and I’m sure you would help nations like us who do not want dictatorship anymore.

We have finished this issue. We are turning the page, and we are going to succeed, and when we succeed, I hope you will still be our friends.

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