Islamist supporters of Egypt’s deposed leader Mohammed Mursi planned new rallies on Friday as the interim premier suggested a crackdown on their protest camps was imminent.
Mursi supporters called for marches to begin after the Muslim Friday prayers at noon as the nation rested on the second day of the Eid ul-Fitr holiday.
The government had said it held off from breaking up the protest camps in Cairo out of respect for the holy month of Ramadan, which ended on Wednesday night, and to give foreign mediators a chance to end the deadlock peacefully.
But Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi warned late on Thursday “that the situation is approaching the moment we would rather avoid”.
“The government wants to give the protesters, especially the reasonable ones among them, a chance to reconcile and heed the voice of reason,” he said in a television interview quoted in a cabinet statement.
Pro-Mursi protesters set up two protest camps in Cairo days before his overthrow on July 3 in a popularly backed military coup.