Egypt's crisis continues - Opposition calls for broad national dialogue as Morsi backs down from emergency decrees after Port Said , Suez and Ismaiiiyah ignore the Egyptian President's decrees ....

http://www.juancole.com/2013/02/egyptian-cities-demonstrations.html

Egyptian Cities Erupt in anti-Morsi Demonstrations

Posted on 02/02/2013 by Juan

Tens of thousands of Egyptians demonstrated around the country on Friday, despite cold, rainy weather in Alexandria and along the Canal zone.

In Cairo itself, crowds gathered in front of Morsi’s presidential palace in Heliopolis, and some youth threw Molotov cocktails. Aljazeera English reports:

Crowds in major cities chanted that they wanted new presidential elections, i.e. they want President Muhammad Morsi to step down. They also denounced the “Muslim Brotherhood-ization” of Egypt.

In Port Said, thousands of demonstrators demanded the fall of the Morsi government and some posters even proclaimed “the Republic of Port Said.”

In the Delta city of Kafr Sheikh, 25 demonstrators were injured by the military-grade tear gas deployed by police. Kafr Sheikh is a big textile center, and textile workers have taken the lead since about 2006 is demonstrating and striking. Since the Muslim Brotherhood is socially conservative and partial to business, it hasn’t been good for unions, and many of the protests in Egypt are likely in part expressions of the rage of union members.
Morsi squeaked by to victory last June, but this fall began acting increasingly dictatorially, declaring himself above the courts and pushing through a fundamentalist-tinged constitution that has terrified secularists, women and Coptic Christians. Although Morsi has climbed down from his claim of judicial immunity, he is still acting high-handedly. His largely appointed, mostly Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Consultative Council (a sort of senate) has hastened to legislate without waiting for the lower house to be elected.

Worst of all, Morsi has not met the demands of workers for better wages and working conditions, among the major drivers of the revolution against Hosni Mubarak two years ago. His constitution attempts to regiment workers and only allows for one union per trade.

On top of everything else, over 20 football hoodlums in Port Said were sentenced to death two weeks ago for their role in provoking a stampede just about a year ago at the city’s soccer stadium, killing scores. After the verdict, local families tried to break into the prison and free their relatives or sons, provoking clashes that left 41 dead.

Despite a reconciliation meeting between Morsi and the secular or centrist opposition on Thursday, there isn’t much sign of reconciliation.

Morsi should not have rushed that constitution through. He had hoped to forestall further intervention against him by his bold gestures. Instead, he has alienated the leftist youth who spearheaded the revolution, and who had up until last fall been willing to work with the Brotherhood.

http://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/Egypts-Revolution-Going-Nowhere-Fast.html

The Egyptian currency this week hit a record low as the country grapples with post-revolution frustrations. That means it's becoming more expensive for the government to handle imports. Meanwhile, public disdain continues to mount as much of the country's population lives below the poverty line. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi met this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a visit shortened by national turmoil. Last month, the German government delayed a move to forgive $324 million in debt because of disappointment with Egypt's political development. That same month, it emerged that Egypt would soon switch to a net natural gas importer and thus cut off a source of revenue. Two years ago, a 30-year-old dictatorship collapsed. Under the first democratically-elected government in the nation's long history, the economy may be next.

Morsi cut his trip to Germany this week short as demonstrations meant to mark the two-year anniversary of the revolution turned violent. Morsi last year became the first president elected by a democratic vote in Egyptian history. Since then, he's faced mounting criticism at home despite earning international praise for his role in brokering a cease-fire between Hamas militants and Israel in late 2012.

Cairo is in desperate need of financial support. This week, the Egyptian pound set a new record-low of 6.58 to the U.S. dollar.  Imports, as a result, have become more expensive for a country where 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Morsi's administration is looking for a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, something Merkel's Germany is supporting. She said economic recovery was in part a solution to Egypt's political crises and stood by Morsi, as did other Western powers. Germany is Egypt's third-largest trading partner and few, if any companies, are headed for the exits.

Related article: Further Attempts to Destabilize Egypt

As of 2011, the country was ranked No. 18 in the world in terms of natural gas exports. By December, however, Royal Dutch Shell said the country might need to start importing liquefied natural gas for the first time ever. By some accounts, the country is already importing natural gas, which the country uses for more than half of its electricity generation. No crude oil was purchased by the country this month and gasoline shortages have complicated political frustrations.

Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi warned that political confrontations in the country may "lead to the collapse of the state."  Two years after Egyptians exalted the end of the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, the country is far from addressing some of the economic woes that brought about revolution in the first place. On Wednesday, credit rating agency Fitch warned the "fiscal position has worsened" for Egypt and issued a downgrade. Without some breakthrough soon, what started as a political uprising may end with an economic collapse.

By. Daniel J. Graeber of Oilprice.com

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/01/2013130135752973551.html

Crisis talks urged in Egypt amid more unrest

The opposition calls for a broad national dialogue with Egypt's government as violence continues in Cairo. Last Modified: 30 Jan 2013 15:24 inShare Email Print Share Feedback

ElBaradei rejected Morsi's earlier invitation for national unity talks as "cosmetic and not substantive [Reuters]

Two more protesters have been killed after they were hit with birdshot during clashes with police near Cairo's Tahrir Square. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press, confirmed the deaths on Wednesday. Violence has spiraled after first erupting in Cairo on eve of last Friday's second anniversary of the uprising that toppled authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak. Follow spotlight coverage of the struggling young democracy It since spread around the country, with the worst violence in the Suez Canal city of Port Said, which has virtually declared itself in revolt against President Mohamed Morsi's government. In response, Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergencyand night curfew in Port Said and two other Canal cities, Suez and Ismailiyah, and their surrounding provinces. But every night since it went into effect, tens of thousands of residents in the cities have defied the curfew with nighttime rallies and marches, chanting against Morsi and the Musllim Brotherhood, which forms the backbone of his rule. Officials in the presidency and the Brotherhood have blamed the opposition for instigating the violence, accusing them of trying to bring down Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president. Late on Tuesday, Morsi authorised governors of the three provinces to either cancel or limit curfew hours in an attempt to assuage public anger. Suez Governor Gen. Samer Aglan said that he will ease up the curfew while deploying more troops to the streets after midnight, and in Ismailiyah, Governor Gamal Imbaby has cut the curfew to three hours from the nine hours originally imposed. Opposition calls for dialogue Egypt's liberal opposition leader has called for a broad national dialogue with the government, all political factions and the powerful military, aimed at stopping the country's eruption of political violence that has left more than 60 dead in the past week. Mohamed ElBaradei's appeal on Wednesday appeared to be aimed at responding to a sharp warning by the head of the armed forces a day earlier that Egypt could collapse unless the country's feuding political factions reconcile. So far the opposition National Salvation Front headed by ElBaradei and the government of President Mohamed Morsi have been at loggerheads, with the front demanding Morsi make major concessions as a condition for any dialogue. In a Tweet, ElBaradei called for an immediate meeting between Morsi, the defence and interior ministers, the Brotherhood's political party, the National Salvation Front and parties of the ultraconservative Salafi movement "to take urgent steps to stop the violence and start a serious dialogue". He stuck by the Front's previous conditions for holding a dialogue - that Morsi form a national unity government and form a commission to amend contentious articles of the government-backed constitution. Morsi has ignored their demands, holding his own "national dialogue" programme, mainly with his own allies. The Front has depicted the unrest as a backlash against Muslim Brotherhood's insistence on monopolising power and as evidence that the group and its allies are unable to manage the country on their own.

http://www.juancole.com/2013/01/backs-emergency-decree.html

Is Egypt on the Verge of Civil War? Morsi backs off Emergency Decree

Posted on 01/30/2013 by Juan

Minister of Defense Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Tuesday that if the country’s turmoil continued, Egypt faced the possibility of a collapse of the state.

The intrepid Ben Wedeman of CNN reports on the ambivalence of the Egyptian police about being ordered by a Muslim Brotherhood president to crack down on protesting youth. He thereby helps explain why Ismailia, Port Said and Suez managed to blithely defy the president’s attempt to impose emergency laws and a curfew.

Wedeman also interviews retired Gen. Sameh Seif al-Yezal, who interprets al-Sisi’s statement as a warning against the country sliding into civil war, which al-Yezal thinks is a real possibility.

Meanwhile, President Muhammad Morsi backed off his decree of emergency law and suspension of civil liberties in the Canal cities of Suez, Port Said, and Ismailia, which have seen vigorous protests against his government since the Jan. 25 two-year anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian revolution.

Morsi left it to the provincial governors of the three cities to decide whether or how to implement the emergency decree, or whether to cancel it. His spokesman said it was not intended to suspend peaceful protests.

Protesters in the three cities refused to observe the curfew the president put in place on Monday and Tuesday nights, mounting demonstrations and playing soccer in front of government buildings. As Mr. Wedeman reported, the police seem uninterested in intervening.

Although most Egyptians are indignant at being compared to Algeria, it should be a cautionary tale for Dr. Morsi, as it is for Tunisian Muslim leader Rashid Ghanoushi. In 1992-2002, some 150,000 Algerians died in a vicious civil war between secularists and fundamentalists. The same division is emerging in Egypt, and the secular and moderate-religious forces are increasingly rejecting the legitimacy of Morsi’s rule. Two competing claims to sovereignty are what make for a civil war.

Morsi created this polarization by pushing through a fundamentalist-tinged constitution and by forming a Muslim Brotherhood government that excludes his opposition, even though he did not win the presidency by a very large margin. His tendency to issue sweeping decrees and to favor his Muslim Brotherhood cadres has created a fear that he just wants to be a fundamentalist Hosni Mubarak and does not really have the instincts of a democrat.