On Sunday afternoon former interim vice president Mohamed Al-Baradei left Cairo on flight 797 to Vienna. Three years before he had received a hero's welcome at the same airport following his retirement from his job as director of the UN nuclear watchdog. Hours after the government made its decision to clear the Muslim Brotherhood's sit-ins at Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Giza's Nahda Square on 14 August Al-Baradei tendered his resignation to interim President Adli Mansour in protest. At the airport Al-Baradei declined to give any comments. It is not clear how long he intends to stay in Vienna. “It has become hard for me to keep bearing responsibility for decisions I did not approve, and the consequences which I warned against,” Al-Baradei wrote in his letter of resignation. “I cannot be responsible before God for a single drop of blood.” “It was hoped that the people's uprising of 30 June would steer the country back onto the path of achieving the revolution's goals after the dominating, exclusionary policies practised by the groups that ruled the country during one of its worst years,” he continued. “This is what drove me to accept an executive position, but things took a different direction where polarisation and division reached more dangerous levels and the social fabric faced disintegration.” “I believe that there were acceptable peaceful alternatives to resolve our societal confrontation, a necessary step towards achieving national reconciliation,” he added. “Violence begets violence, and mark my words, the only beneficiaries from what happened today are extremist groups.” The interim government tried over the last week to downplay the significance of the resignation. In a press conference on Saturday interim presidential political adviser Mustafa Hegazi said that the presidency respected the ex-vice president's decision. On Sunday Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmi said that he did not doubt Al-Baradei's patriotism. “I think everybody should show objectivity regarding Dr Al-Baradei's decision. The government pays him full respect for his efforts and his service,” said Fahmi. Some members of the Dostour Party, which Al-Baradei founded, were disinclined to take Fahmi's advice. Deputy Prime Minister Hossam Eissa, Dostour's former secretary, claimed in an interview on Dream Channel that Al-Baradei had agreed to the dispersal of the sit-ins at a cabinet meeting. He also said the former vice president called Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi expressing his support for the operation after he was briefed on the anticipated number of casualties. Leading Dostour member Ahmed Darrag announced his resignation from the party in protest at Al-Baradei's move which, said Darrag, meant “abandoning his country at a critical time when Egypt needs him most to pass the current situation”. Following Darrag's and Eissa's attacks the party issued an official statement on Friday condemning “the smear campaign” against Al-Baradei. The statement attributed the attacks on Al-Baradei, in parts at least, to remnants of the Mubarak regime which it accuses of taking advantage of the 30 June Revolution to revive their fortunes. It emphasised that Al-Baradei's decision to resign from his post was a personal one. “We have no doubt that at the appropriate time Al-Baradei will tell the public the reasons why he resigned,” read the Dostour Party's statement. The National Salvation Front (NSF) issued a statement saying it had received news of the resignation with “much sadness”. “We thought, based on his close relationship with the front, that he would have consulted us before taking the decision,” said the NSF. Al-Baradei served as the NSF's general coordinator from December 2012 until July 2013 before he resigned to take the post of vice president for foreign affairs in Egypt's interim government. The NSF confirmed that it remained committed to the current roadmap being implemented according to schedule. In a related development NSF official spokesperson Khaled Dawoud resigned from the front saying he could no longer “hold my head up high after hundreds of Egyptians were killed in the government raid on the sit-ins”. “I could not continue speaking for the majority of the front's parties after they opted to support the military crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood,” Dawoud said in his resignation letter. He went on to condemn “serious violations” by security forces during the clashes with Mohamed Morsi supporters and stressed that the only way out of the crisis is a political solution reintegrating the Brotherhood into the political process. The Tamarod campaign, which spearheaded the 30 June mass protests that overthrew Morsi from power, described Al-Baradei's resignation as an “escape from responsibility”. “We hoped that Al-Baradei would have played his part in explaining the situation to global public opinion and the international community and clarify that Egypt is facing organised terrorism,” the statement read. Tamarod spokesman Mahmoud Badr accused Al-Baradei of preferring to polish his “international image in front of friends around the world at the expense of [his] national image in front of the Egyptian people and the role of vice president”. In recent weeks Al-Baradei had come under fire from hardline anti-Brotherhood forces for advocating a peaceful settlement with Islamists. Two weeks ago the Nobel Peace Prize winner expressed his displeasure over the increasingly vicious attacks levelled against him. “In a desperate attempt to keep tyranny alive lies and defamation since January 2010 when I returned to Egypt: attacks on my identity, work, international relations, personal life,” he said via Twitter. Ironically, the same parties that had vetoed Al-Baradei's appointment as prime minister following the ouster of president Morsi were among the very few that did not join the tidal wave of criticism following his resignation. Nader Bakkar, deputy chairman of the Salafist Nour Party, described Al-Baradei's resignation as “the least he could do”. Bakkar said his party had failed to anticipate the government's “indifference to bloodshed”. The party's spokesman Sherif Taha called Al-Baradei's resignation “a step on the right path”, stating that Egypt desperately needs national reconciliation. The 6 April Youth Movement also supported Al-Baradei. Its spokesperson Khaled Al-Masri said the movement “completely understands” Al-Baradei's position given the former vice president's “humanitarian commitment to justice and freedom”.
