The military council will work on laying the democratic foundations to build new Egypt during the transitional phase, Al-Masry Al-Youm website quoted Major General Ismail Etman, member of the ruling military council, as saying. He added that the council will transfer power to an elected civilian president no later than 30 July 2012 and that the armed forces would go back to barracks then.

Al-Masry Al-Youm said that Etman’s statement came in response to what former American president Jimmy Carter told the New York Times after his meeting with members of the military council.  Carter told the US paper that he doubtful that the military council would fully transfer power to an elected civilian president.

Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Etman as saying that the military council “will transfer power on a golden plate, not a silver one, to an elected civilian power by the end of next June”.