Uneasy calm in Egypt

Mohamed Morsi calls for dialogue in attempt to quell Egypt's anger

Violent street battles stop – for now – but country remains locked in confrontation

the Guardian,

7 December, 2012

Egypt's Republican Guard restored an uneasy calm to the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce clashes in which seven people were killed, as the political crisis worsened over Mohamed Morsi's decrees extending his power.

The president, criticised for his silence in the past few days, addressed the nation, accusing some of the opposition protesters of serving remnants of the old regime and vowing never to tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his "legitimate" government.

He also announced the start of a "comprehensive and productive" dialogue with the opposition starting on Saturday and said that the referendum on the disputed constitution, at the heart of the crisis, would go ahead as scheduled on 15 December despite opposition demands to rescind the document. Morsi also refused to annul his decrees of 22 November giving him near-absolute powers.

Barack Obama called Morsi on Thursday to express his "deep concern" about the deaths and injuries of protesters, the White House said. "The president emphasised that all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable."

"He welcomed President Morsi's call for a dialogue with the opposition, but stressed that such a dialogue should occur without preconditions. The president noted that the United States has also urged opposition leaders to join in this dialogue without preconditions."

However, the opposition National Salvation Front refused the calls for dialogue. Co-ordinator Mohamed ElBaradei said the door for dialogue with Morsi had been closed after the bloodshed outside the presidential palace on Wednesday and called for Egyptians to take to the streets today in "all of Egypt's squares".

Late on Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood's main office in Cairo and an office used by the Islamist group in a suburb south of the capital were set on fire, Brotherhood officials and state media said.

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, said on its Facebook page that the headquarters in the Mukattam district had been attacked in "a terrorist aggression" by thugs.

Brotherhood officials blamed police for failing to prevent the violence.

"There was an intensive presence of security forces in front of the Brotherhood's main headquarters in Mukattam, yet no one intervened to stop the protesters from burning it down," FJP's Facebook page quoted the Brotherhood's spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan as saying.

Earlier, hundreds of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had camped out near the palace withdrew before a deadline set by the Republican Guard. Scores of opposition protesters remained but were kept behind a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks.

Egypt has seen sporadic clashes throughout nearly two years of political turmoil after Hosni Mubarak's departure in February 2011. But Wednesday's street battles were the worst yet between Morsi's supporters and opponents, who threw stones and petrol bombs at each other, stoking fears that the standoff would grow even more polarised and violent.

Wednesday's clashes began after the Freedom and Justice party announced that supporters were heading for the palace. Afterwards the area surrounding it looked like a warzone. Officials said 350 people had been wounded in the violence.

Morsi's opponents accuse him of seeking to create a new dictatorship. He insists his actions were necessary to prevent courts still full of Mubarak-appointed judges from sabotaging a constitution vital for Egypt's political transition.

Earlier in the day a small crowd milled about, some of them keeping up the chants against Morsi. Further marches by anti-Morsi protesters reached the palace later in the evening. As the crowds grew, protesters chanted, "The Brotherhood cannot be trusted" and, "Where are the Brotherhood? The revolutionaries are here." Chants of "Leave" and "The people want to bring down the regime" – famous from last year's anti-Mubarak protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square – rang out.

"The Brotherhood are trying to get everything they want by force," said an engineering student, David Farid. "It is like coercion because they have everything and they feel that they can do what they want and to hell with everyone else."

The opposition insists that the national dialogue Morsi has called for to avert the crisis cannot take place until the decree is rescinded and the referendum delayed.

The draft constitution has been criticised for its content and the way in which it was rushed through by an assembly lacking minority and liberal voices who withdrew in objection to many of the articles. It has been criticised for its lack of protection for women and minority rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression.

Maha Azzam of the London-based thinktank Chatham House said the situation had worsened. "A large section of the opposition have always felt uncomfortable with the election result that brought Morsi to power," she told al-Jazeera TV. "What we are seeing is an ongoing power struggle. The majority would want to go to a referendum and see this out."

Egypt is at a critical point, Azzam said. "Morsi is trying to cement his power and he is trying to do it step by step. But there are many spoilers and many people who are unhappy with an Islamist element and what some see as a hidden agenda. But we have seen 30 years of propaganda against the Muslim Brotherhood."

The UN human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, urged the Egyptian authorities to protect peaceful protesters and prosecute anyone inciting violence, including politicians. "The current government came to power on the back of similar protests and so should be particularly sensitive to the need to protect protesters' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly," Pillay said in Geneva.