Q. People say that by holding parliamentary elections in September, you are giving the Muslim Brotherhood an advantage because they are so well organized.
A. The Muslim Brotherhood may get a majority in the election. If they come to power, they will not be reelected. [In the past], people only voted for the Muslim Brotherhood to oppose the regime. . . . We are doing our best to start a democratic process, but for years afterwards we will have to make it more mature and stronger.
Q. Can I conclude that the army will be playing an important role behind the scenes?
A. When most revolutions start, the people who start them have both the capability and the vision. But in our case, the military has the capability, but the vision and the ideas are derived from the people.
Q. That could be a plus or a minus, right?
A. One dilemma we are facing now is that it is not left to us completely to run the country. We have to respond and to satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the people. The second dilemma is that we cannot find real leadership from the people here who can sit down at the negotiating table and propose their ideas and discuss them and come to compromises.
Q. Nobody?
A. What we are dealing with now is leading ideas, not leading persons. The ideas are proposed on the Internet and Facebook. . . . If they are accepted by a large number of people, the next day they are on the streets . . . and ask [us] to respond to it as a demand.
Q. How do you cope with something like that?
A. It is a problem. The ceiling of the demands is endless. We may also say that these ideas are . . . not deep enough because the young people generating these ideas don’t have enough political experience. I’ll give you an example. We talk about the Rafah border crossing [between Egypt and the Gaza Strip] from the political and security point of view and the international commitments we have. We look for Rafah to be open [only] under certain conditions and controls.
The Palestinians say on the Net that Gaza is completely blocked and the Egyptians have to open the crossing. The next day, it is a public demand from the Egyptians. . . . This is pressure on us. And, of course, we have to respond.
Q. Your foreign minister told me Egypt is opening up to Gaza and sending in whatever they need. . . . Is it the army that makes the decision?
A. The power is in the hands of the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
The council is responsible for running the whole country in this transition period. . . . There was a demand that all people detained for political or other reasons, except criminal reasons, be released.
Q. Detained during the protests or before them?
A. Over years before the revolution — [jailed] for political or religious reasons — anything other than criminal reasons.
Q. What did you do about that?
A. They were released. And now they constitute part of the problem on the street.
Q. What is the Supreme Council’s attitude toward private business?
A. We have honorable businessmen, honest people who are really trying to do some real development in the country — they will receive our full respect.
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