Politics
Egypt: President Mursi repeals decree that led to unrest
In recent days, since the deadly clashes, the mass protests had taken to demanding Mursi step down, in scenes reminiscent of those during the early 2011 uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak from power.
The main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, has said it is ready for “serious and objective dialogue” as soon as Mursi met its demands to scrap the decree and drop the referendum.
It had rebuffed an earlier offer by Mursi on Thursday to open talks because the president did not give way on those two points.
Wayne White, a former senior US State Department intelligence official who is now a policy expert with Washington’s Middle East Policy Council, told AFP that the military’s involvement in the crisis was key.
If the army’s leaders saw sufficient opposition to Mursi, they would “inform him that they cannot continue to keep the peace and that he should make serious concessions to the opposition,” he said.
Copyright 2012 AFP
