Rival demonstrations are primed to confront each other in Cairo as a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the Egyptian military – during which the political echelon was ordered to resolve the crisis behind mass anti-government protests – is set to expire:

Tens of thousands of rival Egyptians poured onto the streets on Wednesday, minutes before a controversial army deadline to impose a political solution after a defiant Islamist President Mohamed Morsi vowed to see out his term regardless.

The interior ministry warned that police would respond firmly to any violence after a week of bloodshed — which has now killed almost 50 people — intensified as Morsi supporters and opponents again squared off overnight.

Morsi’s opponents accuse him of having betrayed the revolution by concentrating power in Islamist hands and of sending the economy into freefall. His supporters say he inherited many problems, and that he should be allowed to complete his term, which runs until 2016.

The country’s military had set the deadline one day after a different deadline set by protesters. The army instructed embattled president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood-linked administration to “meet the demands of the people” by Wednesday, otherwise the army would step in with a “roadmap” to restore order.

Millions of anti-government protesters have taken to the streets in demonstrations that began last Wednesday and peaked on Sunday. Activists have been explicit in demanding the removal of Muslim Brotherhood influence from political life, and some of the protests have targeted Brotherhood facilities.

For their part Brotherhood officials have threatened to create vigilante “self-defense committees.”

[Photo: Mohamed Azazy / Flickr]