Mursi stands by his decrees; Islamists cancel protests

Egypt’s Islamist president has told the nation’s top judges that he acted within his rights when he issued a series of decrees giving him sweeping powers, according to his spokesman.

That stand is likely to trigger a prolonged showdown with the opposition.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told reporters Monday that Mohammed Mursi assured the judges that the decrees did not in any way “infringe” on the judiciary.

There is “no change to the constitutional declaration,” Ali told reporters. But he said the president clarified to the judges that any irrevocable decisions apply only to issues related “to his sovereign powers” and stressed the temporary nature of the decree.

Meanwhile, Egyptian opposition politician Hamdeen Sabahy said on Monday that protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square would continue until Mursi’s decree granting him extra powers was reversed.

“Our decision is to continue in the square, we will not leave before this declaration is brought down,” he said, adding that Tahrir Square would be a model of an “Egypt that will not accept a new dictator because it brought down the old one.”

Sabahy is a leftist who has a launched a movement called the Popular Current. The former presidential candidate has joined several other opposition leaders to denounce Mursi’s decree. He was speaking at a news conference broadcast on television.

However, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has withdrawn its call for a rally on Tuesday in a bid “to avoid clashes” with a rival demonstration Mursi’s decision to grant himself broad powers.

“The protest has been cancelled to avoid any potential clashes or unrest,” Ahmed Sobei, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm the Freedom and Justice Party, told AFP.

U.S.

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for calm in Egypt and for the country to resolve differences over its constitutional impasse peacefully, a White House spokesman said on Monday.

The decrees have also forced Obama to straddle two positions on Mursi, who helped broker a ceasefire in the recent Gaza conflict that was backed by the United States.

Mursi “played an important role,” in bringing “about a ceasefire, so that lives could be saved and the possibility of moving forward on negotiations for a more enduring peace could be realized,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a briefing of reporters.