Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Middle East Egypt's Morsi meets judges over new powers ... President repeats assurances that judicial measures are temporary as protests swell in Tahrir Square and Nile Delta.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is meeting senior judges to try to ease a crisis over his new powers, which has seen protests reminiscent of the revolution last year that brought him to power.

'There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures...' - Mohamed ElBaradei,

The Supreme Judicial Council said Morsi's decree should apply only to 'sovereign matters', suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on judges and prosecutors, some of whom began a strike on Sunday, to return to work.

Temporary measures

Morsi's office repeated assurances that the measures would be temporary, and said he wanted dialogue with political groups to find 'common ground' over what should go in Egypt's constitution, one of the issues at the heart of the crisis.

Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University, saw an effort by the presidency and judiciary to resolve the crisis, but added their statements were 'vague'.

'The situation is heading towards more trouble,' he said.

Sunday's stock market fall of nearly ten per cent - halted only by automatic curbs - was the worst since the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February, 2011.

On Monday, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Al-Nour Party announced the decision to delay mass demonstrations, originally planned for Tuesday, 'until futher notice'.

'We are back to square one, politically, socially,' said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities, an Egyptian brokerage firm. Morsi's decree marks an effort to consolidate his influence after he successfully sidelined Mubarak-era generals in August, and reflects his suspicions of a judiciary little reformed since the fall of his predecessor. Issued just a day after Morsi received glowing tributes from Washington for his work brokering a deal to end eight days of Israeli attacks on Gaza, the decree drew warnings from the West to uphold democracy. 'Protect the revolution' The Morsi administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms that will complete Egypt's democratic transformation. According to President Morsi's decree, no authority can revoke presidential decisions [Reuters] Yet leftists, liberals, socialists and others say it has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak. 'There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference',' prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday. Morsi framed his decisions on Thursday as necessary to protect the revolution that toppled Mubarak nearly two years ago and to cement the nation's transition to democratic rule. Morsi also ordered the retrial of Mubarak and top aides on charges of killing protesters during the uprising. 'He had to act to save the country and protect the course of the revolution,'' Pakinam al-Sharqawi, one of Morsi's aides, said. 'It is a major stage in the process of completing the January 25th revolution,'' she said, alluding to the starting day of last year's uprising against Mubarak. He also created a new 'protection of the revolution'' judicial body to swiftly carry out the prosecutions. Source: Al Jazeera And Agencies