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Opposition in Egypt Urges Unity Government Opposition in Egypt Urges Unity Government
(about 5 hours later)
CAIRO — A prominent Egyptian opposition leader called on President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday to hold a national dialogue, a day after the nation’s top general warned that the state itself was in danger of collapse because of violence verging on anarchy in three Suez Canal cities. CAIRO — Facing dire warnings from the military about the country’s growing chaos, Egyptian opposition leaders banded together for the first time on Wednesday and pressed President Mohamed Morsi to form a national unity government as a way to halt the violence that has led to dozens of deaths over the past week.
On Tuesday, thousands of residents poured into the streets of the three cities, protesting a 9 p.m. curfew with another night of chants against Mr. Morsi and assaults on the police. But even as secular and Islamist groups crossed an ideological divide to try to find a way to end the increasing violence, Mr. Morsi rejected the idea during a visit to Germany, where he said a new government would be formed only after parliamentary elections in April.
With Mr. Morsi himself in Berlin on Wednesday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and potential investors, Mohamed ElBaradei, the former United Nations diplomat and coordinator of the secular opposition, said on Twitter, “Stopping the violence is the priority.” “In Egypt there is a stable government working day and night in the interest of all Egyptians,” Mr. Morsi said after meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
He urged Mr. Morsi to start a “serious dialogue” and to bow to a demand for a “national salvation government” including members of the opposition and a committee to institute constitutional reforms. But Mr. Morsi rejected the demand, saying at a news conference with Chancellor Merkel that Egypt had “a stable government working day and night.” Still, the opposition’s gamble offered the first recent indication that the nation’s political leaders were searching for common ground and a way out of the chaos. Egypt’s largest secular-leaning opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, joined a hard-line Islamist group, the Nour party, which had been allied with the president and his movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, in calling for a new government.
On Tuesday, Mr. Morsi seemed powerless to halt the violence along the Suez Canal, a vital waterway. He had already granted the police extralegal powers to enforce the curfew and then called out the army as well. His allies in the Muslim Brotherhood and their opposition also proved ineffectual in the face of the crisis, each retreating to their corners, pointing fingers of blame. The political maneuvers came a day after Egypt’s defense chief warned of “the collapse of the state” if the country’s quarreling political forces did not reconcile. The statement, by Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, was a stark reminder that Mr. Morsi’s authority had been weakened after days of protests led him to declare a state of emergency in three cities along the Suez Canal when the police lost control.
The general’s warning punctuated a rash of violent protests across the country that has dramatized the near-collapse of the government’s authority. With the city of Port Said proclaiming its nominal independence, protesters demanded the resignation of Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, while people across the country appeared convinced that taking to the streets in protests was the only means to get redress for their grievances. Egyptians have reacted with growing frustration to the political feuding in Cairo and the deteriorating economy. Many have warned that the standoff — between a weak and often intractable opposition movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, which has grown increasingly paranoid — could lead to even worse political violence. Days of street clashes have intensified those fears.
Just five months after Egypt’s president assumed power from the military, the cascading crisis revealed the depth of the distrust for the central government left by decades of autocracy, two years of convoluted transition and his own acknowledged missteps in facing the opposition. With cities in open rebellion and the police unable to tame crowds, the very fabric of society appears to be coming undone. As he left for Germany, Mr. Morsi abruptly backed down from some of the emergency measures he had imposed — and which the public had already ignored — saying that he would leave it to the provincial authorities to set their own curfews. On Wednesday, all three cities on the Suez Canal reduced curfews to just a few hours early in the morning.
The chaos has also for the first time touched pillars of the long-term health of Egypt’s economy, already teetering after two years of turbulence since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. While a heavy deployment of military troops along the Suez Canal — a vital source of revenue — appeared to insulate it from the strife in Port Said, Suez and Ismailia, the clashes near Tahrir Square in Cairo spilled over for the first time into an armed assault on the historic Semiramis InterContinental Hotel, sending tremors of fear through the vital tourism sector. The visit to Germany further highlighted Mr. Morsi’s troubles. The president, who had scheduled the visit before the protests started, was forced to cut it short, and he canceled a trip to France. At several public appearances, Mr. Morsi appeared defensive while describing the situation in Egypt. He attributed much of the violence to remnants of Egypt’s deposed government, or so-called infiltrators, including a little-known group that the Egyptian authorities turned into a scapegoat in recent days and called a grave national security threat.
With the stakes rising and no solution in sight, Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, the defense minister, warned Egypt’s new Islamist leaders and their opponents that “their disagreement on running the affairs of the country may lead to the collapse of the state and threatens the future of the coming generations.” On Tuesday, Egypt’s public prosecutor declared that the group, which calls itself the Black Bloc, was a terrorist organization and issued warrants for its members’ arrests. Five people were detained on Wednesday, state news media reported.
“Political, economic, social and security challenges” require united action by all parties to avoid “dire consequences that affect the steadiness and stability of the homeland,” General Sisi said in an address to military cadets that was later relayed as a public statement from his spokesman. And the acute polarization of the civilian politics, he suggested, has now become a concern of the military because “to affect the stability of the state institutions is a dangerous matter that harms Egyptian national security.” If the president hoped to leave Egypt in search of a friendlier audience, he did not find it in Germany. Mr. Morsi was asked repeatedly over the course of several appearances — at least five times by his count — about anti-Semitic statements he had made in 2010 in which he spoke of nurturing “our children and our grandchildren on hatred” of Jews and called Zionists “bloodsuckers” and “the descendants of apes and pigs.” In his first public response since the comments surfaced, Mr. Morsi said that his statements had been taken out of context and that he was “not against Judaism as a religion” but had been condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
Coming just months after the military relinquished the power it had seized upon the ouster of Mr. Mubarak, General Sisi’s rebuke to the civilian leaders inevitably raised the possibility that the generals might once again step into civilian politics. There was no indication of an imminent coup. “Children in Egypt grow up watching blood being shed,” he said before speaking at length about events that he said he had witnessed as a teenager when Israeli airstrikes killed Egyptian civilians at a school and a factory. Mr. Morsi did not apologize for the slurs.
Analysts familiar with General Sisi’s thinking say that unlike his predecessors, he wants to avoid any political entanglements. But the Egyptian military has prided itself on its dual military and political role since Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup more than six decades ago. And General Sisi insisted Tuesday that the military would remain “the solid mass and the backbone upon which rest the Egyptian state’s pillars.” In Berlin, Mr. Morsi also met with the economic minister, Philipp Rösler, and representatives of German businesses. Germany is Egypt’s third most important trading partner, and Mr. Morsi is relying on investment and aid from Germany to rescue the teetering Egyptian economy.
With the army now caught between the president’s instructions to restore order and the citizens’ refusal to comply, he said, the armed forces are facing “a serious dilemma” as they seek to end the violence without “confronting citizens and their right to protest.” Ms. Merkel made it clear that Berlin would continue its support of Egypt’s transition to democracy only if Mr. Morsi’s government upheld certain ideals. “One thing that is important for us is that the channels of dialogue are always open,” she said.
The attack on the Semiramis Hotel, between the American Embassy and the Nile in one of the most heavily guarded neighborhoods of the city, showed how much security had deteriorated. And it testified to the difficult task that the civilian government faces in trying to rebuild public security and trust. On Wednesday, Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations official who is the coordinator of the National Salvation Front, said the group was calling for a dialogue with the government, reversing its refusal to sit down with Mr. Morsi.
Capitalizing on the melee between protesters and the police outside the hotel around 2 a.m., at least a dozen armed men overpowered the guard at the hotel’s door, looted the luxury stores in its mall and ransacked its lobby, hotel staff members said. The assailants carried knives, pellet guns and one semiautomatic weapon, a guard told Al Ahram Online, run by the state-owned news media. In a Twitter post, Mr. ElBaradei called for a meeting with the president and the defense and interior ministers — highlighting the perception that Mr. Morsi did not speak for central pillars of the sprawling Egyptian bureaucracy. Mr. ElBaradei also asked that members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, and ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis to join the talks.
When the police failed to respond to calls for help, the hotel staff resorted to Twitter, the favorite medium of the Egyptian revolt. “We are under attack! Several thugs have entered the Semiramis! Send help!” the hotel’s Twitter account blared in capital letters. “Stopping the violence is the priority,” Mr. ElBaradei wrote, adding conditions for the talks that included a commitment to a new cabinet and the creation of a committee to amend Egypt’s recently ratified Constitution.
“Revolutionaries” from the protest outside helped drive out the attackers, said Nabila Samak, the marketing manager who sent out the messages. The police finally responded about an hour and a half after the attack began, she said. The guests were relocated and the hotel closed. In a sign of the ways that the crisis is redrawing Egypt’s political landscape, the Salafis’ Nour party announced that it was joining the call for a unity government. The Salafis, considered the strongest political force in Egypt after the Muslim Brotherhood, have fractured politically in recent months, creating a crack in the Islamist front that dominated the last parliamentary elections.

Kareem Fahim and Mayy el Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo, Alan Cowell from London, and Melissa Eddy and Victor Homola from Berlin.

In announcing a tentative agreement with the secular opposition groups, the Nour party’s leader, Younis Makhyoun, seemed to endorse further erosion of the Brotherhood’s political dominance, possibly with an eye toward his own party’s prospects in the next elections. Among other aims, the tentative agreement called for “prohibiting the domination of a single faction over political life.”

Kareem Fahim reported from Cairo, and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin. Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo, and Melissa Eddy from Berlin.