US caught in dilemma over Egypt

On Sunday, ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was reported to face trial in a criminal court for "incitement to murder", but the interim government did not give a specific date for the trial. The move may escalate the tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military.

Since the ouster of Morsi, violence has rocked Cairo and other major Egyptian cities. Continuing clashes between Morsi's supporters, on the one hand, and his opponents and security forces, on the other, have left hundreds of people dead.

To seek a peaceful end to the Egyptian crisis and avert further violence, the United States, the European Union and other countries and organizations recently organized a weeklong international mediation, which unfortunately failed to yield any result. The interim government in Egypt has announced the failure of diplomatic attempts to iron out the differences between the authorities and the outraged Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's party.