Itongadol.- Egyptian troops with armored vehicles have secured the central Cairo studios of state television on Wednesday, security sources said.
As a deadline approaches when the army high command is expected to step in and reorder Egypt\’s political institutions, the sources said staff not involved in working on live broadcasts had left the building.
A spokesman for Mohamed Morsi said the president believed it would be better to die "standing like a tree", defending the electoral legitimacy of his office, than to go down in history as having destroyed Egyptians\’ hopes for democracy.
Saying that Morsi was not seeking to cling to office for its own sake, spokesman Ayman Ali told Reuters that, in his overnight speech to the nation, the president had defied calls to resign in order to "defend the democratic system".
"It is better for a president, who would otherwise be returning Egypt to the days of dictatorship, from which God and the will of the people has saved us, to die standing like a tree," Ali said, "Rather than be condemned by history and future generations for throwing away the hopes of Egyptians for establishing a democratic life."
The political wing of Egypt\’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood refused an invitation to meet the armed forces commander on Wednesday, hours before an army deadline for Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to yield to mass protests or quit, military and party sources said.
"We do not go to invitations (meetings) with anyone. We have a president and that is it," said Waleed al-Haddad, a senior leader of the Freedom and Justice Party told Reuters.
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