At the conference, convened in the aftermath of a violent security crackdown on a three-week-long anti-government sit-in in front of the Cabinet building in downtown Cairo, Emara also spoke of a "systematic plan to ruin Egypt" and "prevent the peaceful transition to a democratic system." He also described anti-government protesters as "saboteurs."
Emara pointed the finger at unnamed foreign entities that he claimed were working behind the scenes to aggravate political tensions in Egypt. When asked, Emara did not rule out the possibility that the instigators of the recent violence might be figures associated with the toppled regime of former president Hosni Mubarak.
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
"History will not forgive those who harm this nation," he said. "Some are trying to defame the military by spreading false rumours, but this will fail. There's no evidence that we assaulted protesters... we exercised enviably high levels of self restraint."