Egypt Opposition coalition rejects Morsi’s dialogue call
29 Jan 2013 7:28 AM IST
Egypt's main opposition coalition on Monday rejected as ‘waste of time’ a call by Muhammed Morsi for a national dialogue to end a wave of unrest, a day after the embattled President declared an emergency in three riot-hit provinces following the death of nearly 50 people.
As a month-long state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya was declared, the Cabinet on Monday approved a draft law empowering the army to behave like a police force in ‘preserving security and protecting vital establishments’.
Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, after a meeting of the main opposition coalition National Salvation Front, said they would not participate in a dialogue that is ‘empty of content’.
ElBaradei, in a statement on Twitter earlier, called the ‘dialogue invitation a waste of time’ and slammed the government for failing to admit responsibility for the recent violence and for not forming a new consensus-based government and Constituent Assembly.
The fresh violence broke out on Monday near the iconic Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, the epicentre of anti-regime protests during Hosni Mubarak's rule, leaving one person dead taking the toll to 48. Over 700 people were also injured since the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution on January 25. Riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo on Monday, hours after Morsi declared the emergency in the three governorates which have witnessed deadly clashes. ‘I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed,’ Morsi said.
As a month-long state of emergency in the provinces of Port Said, Suez and Ismailiya was declared, the Cabinet on Monday approved a draft law empowering the army to behave like a police force in ‘preserving security and protecting vital establishments’.
Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, after a meeting of the main opposition coalition National Salvation Front, said they would not participate in a dialogue that is ‘empty of content’.
ElBaradei, in a statement on Twitter earlier, called the ‘dialogue invitation a waste of time’ and slammed the government for failing to admit responsibility for the recent violence and for not forming a new consensus-based government and Constituent Assembly.
The fresh violence broke out on Monday near the iconic Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, the epicentre of anti-regime protests during Hosni Mubarak's rule, leaving one person dead taking the toll to 48. Over 700 people were also injured since the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution on January 25. Riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo on Monday, hours after Morsi declared the emergency in the three governorates which have witnessed deadly clashes. ‘I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed,’ Morsi said.
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