A protester who was injured during overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, being detained in front of the presidential palace in Cairo yesterday.
CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood’s main office in Cairo was set ablaze yesterday, the group’s political party said, and another office used by the party was torched in a suburb south of the city, the state news agency reported, while President Mohammed Mursi addressed the nation late
last night.
Fierce overnight clashes killed seven people but passions ran high in a struggle over the country’s future.
The Freedom and Justice Party said on its Facebook page that the headquarters in the Mukattam district had been attacked in “a terrorist aggression” by thugs.
The state news agency said the office used by the FJP was set ablaze in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. Another office was broken into near the city centre, it said.
In his speech, Mursi invited political groups, judges and others to meet tomorrow for a national dialogue on a political road map after a referendum on a new constitution, which he signalled would go ahead as scheduled on December 15.
In a televised address, Mursi also said he was open to the idea of removing an article in a controversial decree that shielded his decisions from judicial review, saying that could happen if “dialogue led to that”.
Mursi’s Nov 22 decree and subsequent call for the referendum on the new constitution has infuriated opposition groups and led to lethal street violence between Mursi’s supporters and opponents.
The main opposition alliance said it was assessing the offer of dialogue, though Mursi’s proposals fell short of opposition demands for the cancellation of the decree and postponement of the referendum on a constitution drafted by an assembly dominated by Islamists.
“I call for a full, productive dialogue with all figures and heads of parties, revolutionary youth and senior legal figures to meet this Saturday,” Mursi said in a televised address yesterday, saying the meeting would be at his official palace.
As well as drawing up a road map, he said they would discuss the fate of the upper house of parliament after the lower house was dissolved in June, the election law and other issues.
He said plans for the referendum on December 15 were on track. REUTERS
