Cairo, Washington swap barbs FM: Army may intervene minister quitsCAIRO: Thousands of state workers and impoverished Egyptians went on strike and the embattled regime warned of a military crackdown Wednesday as massive protests demanding its overthrow spilled out across the country and deadly unrest flared in the remote south. Hundreds of demonstrators marched on parliament from the epicenter of the uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day after the largest protests since the revolt began. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned the army, until now a respected and mostly neutral force on Cairo's streets, would intervene to protect the country if the protests against President Hosni Mubarak escalated. “If chaos occurs, the armed forces will intervene to control the country, a step ... which would lead to a very dangerous situation,” the official MENA news agency said, paraphrasing Abul Gheit's interview with Arabic-language satellite television channel Al Arabiya. His remarks came after newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman warned of a possible “coup” in the absence of a peaceful transfer of power. Abul Gheit slammed the United States for “imposing” its will on Egypt by demanding immediate reforms. “When you speak about prompt, immediate, now, as if you are imposing on a great country like Egypt, a great friend that has always maintained the best of relationship with the United States, you are imposing your will on him,” Abul Gheit said. Shortly after his comments, Washington renewed its calls on the Egyptian army to show restraint. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government had yet to meet the “minimum threshold” of reform demanded by Egyptians. Suleiman's proposed transition process “does not appear to be in line with the people of Egypt. We believe that more has to be done,” he said, adding that it was not for the United States to dictate the shape of reforms. In another sign the regime has not gone far enough, Culture Minister Gaber Asfour – appointed just nine days ago in a cabinet shake-up prompted by the revolt – resigned for “medical reasons”. On Wednesday, demonstrators gathered at parliament, the cabinet and the health ministry buildings, all a few blocks from the square. Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq was working out of the civil aviation ministry on the other side of the city because his office was blocked by protesters. For the first time, protesters were forcefully urging labor strikes despite a warning by the vice president. His warnings Tuesday were taken by protesters as a thinly veiled threat of another crackdown. Strikes erupted in a breadth of sectors – among railway and bus workers, state electricity staff and service technicians at the Suez Canal, in factories manufacturing textiles, steel and beverages and at least one hospital. “They were motivated to strike when they heard about how many billions the Mubarak family was worth,” said Kamal Abbas, a labor leader. “They said: ‘How much longer should we be silent?'” Egyptians have been infuriated by newspaper reports that the Mubarak family has amassed billions, and perhaps tens of billions of dollars in wealth while, according to the World Bank, about 40 percent of the country's 80 million people live below or near the poverty line of $2 a day. The family's true net worth is not known. Growing labor unrest is adding a new dimension to the pressures for Mubarak to step down. The protesters filling streets of Cairo and other cities for the past 16 days have already posed the greatest challenge to the president's rule since he came to power 30 years ago. They have wrought promises of sweeping concessions and reforms, a new cabinet and a purge of the ruling party leadership. The strikes broke out across Egypt as many companies reopened for the first time since night curfews were imposed almost two weeks ago. Not all the strikers were responding directly to the protesters' calls. But the movement's success and its denunciations of the increasing poverty under Mubarak's rule resonated and reignited labor discontent that has broken out frequently in recent years. In one of the flashpoints of unrest Wednesday, some 8,000 protesters, mainly farmers, set barricades of flaming palm trees in the southern province of Assiut. They blocked the main highway and railway to Cairo to complain of bread shortages. They then drove off the governor by pelting his van with stones. Hundreds of slum dwellers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said set fire to part of the governor's headquarters in anger over lack of housing. Dozens of state museum workers demanding higher wages staged a protest in front of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, crowding around antiquities chief Zahi Hawass when he came to talk to them. US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said about 300 people have been killed since the protests began on Jan. 25, but it is still compiling a final toll. The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best organized opposition group despite a half century of illegality, meanwhile moved to reassure observers who fear an Islamist takeover should Mubarak's regime be toppled. “The Muslim Brotherhood does not seek power. We do not want to participate at the moment,” senior leader Mohammed Mursi told reporters, adding that the movement would not field a presidential candidate.
