Two days after Egyptian police opened fire on a Muslim Brotherhood rally, killing seventy-two protesters, EU envoy Catherine Ashton met deposed president Mohamed Morsi at an undisclosed location. Ashton shuttled between both Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian military officials in an effort to broker a peaceful political settlement. 

But according to Nation contributor Sharif Abdel Kouddous, the prospect of continued bloodshed is very real. Kouddous joins Democracy Now! to explain how the security forces are exploiting recent violence to impose an even more repressive political order and what that means for a peaceful political transition. 

—Jake Scobey-Thal