Washington (CNN) -- A foreign policy headache for President Barack Obama worsened on Wednesday as Egypt endured its second coup in less than three years.
Demonstrators jammed Cairo squares to oppose and support President Mohamed Morsy before the military suspended the constitution and announced he was no longer in power.
Egypt's latest political instability came a year after Morsy became the nation's first democratically elected leader. The vote followed similar mass protests and unrest that led to a 2011 military coup resulting in the ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.
Obama refused to choose sides then and his administration has taken a similarly neutral stance so far this time.
Before the military announced the coup, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the United States was "very concerned about what we are seeing on the ground," describing it as "an extremely tense and fast-moving situation in Egypt."
Repeating the stance of Obama as expressed in a White House statement on Tuesday, Psaki said Washington believed that "the Egyptian people deserve a peaceful political solution to the current crisis."
While saying the administration isn't taking sides, Psaki also noted that Morsy had failed to outline "significant specific steps" to address the concerns of anti-government protesters.
"We had said that he must do more to be truly responsive and representative to the justified concerns expressed by the Egyptian people and unfortunately that was not a part of what he talked about in his speech" on Tuesday, Psaki said.
Listen to my commentary on Morsi's overthrow and O's complicity in the entire mess on yesterday's special edition of Hard Starboard Radio.
Cross posted at Hard Starboard
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