ElBaradei: Egypt president must rescind new powers
By HAMZA HENDAWIBy HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press?
?Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks to supporters outside the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. Opponents and supporters of Mohammed Morsi clashed across Egypt on Friday, the day after the president granted himself sweeping new powers that critics fear can allow him to be a virtual dictator. (AP Photo/Aly Hazaza, El Shorouk)
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi speaks to supporters outside the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. Opponents and supporters of Mohammed Morsi clashed across Egypt on Friday, the day after the president granted himself sweeping new powers that critics fear can allow him to be a virtual dictator. (AP Photo/Aly Hazaza, El Shorouk)
Protesters hurl stones during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi in Alexandria, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. Opponents and supporters of Mohammed Morsi clashed across Egypt on Friday, the day after the president granted himself sweeping new powers that critics fear can allow him to be a virtual dictator. Thousands from the two camps threw stones and chunks of marble at each other outside a mosque in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after Friday Muslim prayers. (AP Photo/Tarek Fawzy)
In this Friday Nov. 23, 2012 photo, Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrators occupy Tahrir Square, birthplace of the Arab Spring, in Cairo, Egypt. The unrest underscored the struggle over the direction of Egypt's turbulent passage nearly two years after a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime. Liberals and secular Egyptians accuse the Brotherhood of monopolizing power, dominating the writing of a new constitution and failing to tackle the country's chronic economic and security problems. Arabic writing on tent reads, " Egypt is not a farm, Constitution party, Egypt for Egyptians." (AP Photo)
In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 photo released by the Egyptian Presidency, President Mohammed Morsi, center right, waves to supporters outside the Presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's official news agency says that the country's highest body of judges has called the president's recent decrees an "unprecedented assault on the independence of the judiciary and its rulings." In a statement carried on MEAN Saturday, the Supreme Judicial Council says they regret the declarations President Mohammed Morsi issued Thursday.(AP Photo/Egyptian Presidency)
Newly appointed Egyptian prosecutor general, Talaat Abdullah, arrives for work on his first day in office after being appointed by President Mohammed Morsi in sweeping edicts announced Thursday temporarily giving Morsi near-absolute power over the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government, in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012. Morsi fired the controversial former prosecutor general and created "revolutionary" judicial bodies to put Mubarak and some of his top aides on trial a second time for the killings of protesters playing to widespread discontent with the judiciary. (AP Photo/Mohammed Abu Zeid)
CAIRO (AP) ? Leading democracy advocate Mohammed ElBaradei says dialogue with Egypt's Islamist president is not possible until he rescinds his decrees giving himself near absolute powers.
Speaking to a handful of journalists, including The Associated Press, ElBaradei says he is hoping for a "smooth transition without plunging the country into a cycle of violence."
But he says that may not be possible unless President Mohammed Morsi rescinds the decrees.
ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate for his past work as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has formed a "National Salvation Front" with other liberal and secular leaders, trying to unify the opposition against Morsi.
In the decrees issued this week, Morsi put himself above judicial scrunity.
Associated Press
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