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Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters
Protesters clash with supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi with Molotov cocktails and stones outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday night.
Updated at 7 p.m. ET: CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday invited political groups and legal figures to meet for a national dialogue on solutions to Egypt's political crisis after clashes between his supporters and his foes left seven dead and hundreds wounded.
Morsi did not, however, rescind decrees granting him wide powers that his opponents had demanded, and his overtures on talks were immediately rejected by opposition leaders.
The main office of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood was set ablaze late Thursday, 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.
In a nationally televised address to the nation, Morsi said he would bring together a number of groups at a Saturday meeting at the presidential palace.
"Such painful events happened because of political differences that should be resolved through dialogue," the Islamist president said after two days of violence during protests.
The discussions would center on a political roadmap after a referendum on a new constitution, Reuters reported. Morsi 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.
Analysis: Supporters of Islamist president push Egypt to tipping point
"I call for a full, productive dialogue with all figures and heads of parties, revolutionary youth and senior legal figures to meet this Saturday," Morsi said. He said he would harshly apply homeland security laws.
President Barack Obama called Morsi on Thursday to express his deep concern about the deaths and injuries of protesters in Egypt, the White House said in a statement.
“The President emphasized that all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable,” the statement read. “Obama welcomed President Morsi's call for a dialogue with the opposition but stressed that such a dialogue should occur without preconditions.” The U.S. has also urged opposition leaders to join the dialogue without preconditions.
On the doorstep of Egypt's presidential palace, angry protesters accuse Mohamed Morsi of stealing power and imposing a constitution they consider illegal. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
The speech seemed to do little to ease the crisis. The opposition has already said that it would not enter a dialogue with Morsi unless he first rescinds the decrees and shelves the constitution draft hurriedly adopted by his Islamist allies.
Some members of the umbrella National Salvation Front coalition of major opposition parties have already rejected the dialogue, as did leaders of the "April 6" movement, a group instrumental in starting the Jan. 25 revolution.
Ayman Nour of al Ghad Party, who was formerly jailed under the regime of Hosni Mubarak, said the referendum must be postponed and demanded that Morsi provide evidence that acts of thuggery against protesters were planned.
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, Reuters reported. 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 centerr, it said. It was not clear who set the fires or perpetrated the break in and no groups had claimed responsibility for the acts.
Some among the thousands of opposition protesters gathered near his palace on Thursday raised their shoes in contempt as they listened to Morsi, The Associated Press reported. Others broke into the iconic Arab Spring chant of "the people want to topple the regime."
Earlier Thursday, angry mobs battled each other with Molotov cocktails, rocks and sticks outside the presidential palace complex.
Egypt's Republican Guard, which witnesses said had deployed at least four tanks, later restored order outside the palace.
The street battles were the worst violence since Egypt's latest crisis erupted on Nov. 22, when Morsi assumed near absolute powers.
'Men don't have to worry about being caught': Sex mobs target Egypt's women
The large scale and intensity of the fighting marked a milestone in Egypt's rapidly emerging schism, pitting the Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-conservative Islamists in one camp, against liberals, leftists and Christians in the other.
It was the first time supporters of the rival camps have fought each other since last year's uprising that toppled authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Officials said seven people had been killed and 350 wounded in the violence, for which each side blamed the other, Reuters reported. The Muslim Brotherhood said six of the dead were Morsi supporters.
The commander of the Republican Guard said deployment of tanks and troop carriers around the presidential palace was intended to separate the adversaries, not to repress them.
Asmaa Waguih / Reuters
Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood stand near tanks on Thursday that had been deployed outside the Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo.
"The armed forces, and at the forefront of them the Republican Guard, will not be used as a tool to oppress the demonstrators," General Mohamed Zaki told the state news agency.
Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the opposition National Salvation Front, said more protests were planned, but not necessarily at the palace in Cairo's Heliopolis district.
"Our youth are leading us today and we decided to agree to whatever they want to do," he told Reuters.
Analysis: Egyptians warn that Morsi is no friend of US
The fighting erupted late Wednesday afternoon when thousands of Morsi's Islamist supporters descended on an area near the presidential palace where some 300 of his opponents were staging a sit-in.
The Islamists, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, chased the protesters away from their base outside the palace's main gate and tore down their tents.
After a brief lull, hundreds of Morsi opponents arrived and began throwing firebombs at the president's backers, who responded with rocks.
More Egypt coverage from NBC News
By dawn, the violence had calmed. But both sides appeared to be digging in for a long struggle, with the opposition vowing more protests later Thursday and rejecting any dialogue unless the charter is rescinded.
The violence spread to other parts of the country on Wednesday. Anti-Morsi protesters stormed and set ablaze the Muslim Brotherhood offices in Suez and Ismailia, east of Cairo, and there were clashes in the industrial city of Mahallah and the province of Menoufiyah in the Nile Delta north of the capital.
There were rival demonstrations outside the Brotherhood's headquarters in Alexandria. And security officials said senior Brotherhood official Sobhi Saleh was hospitalized after being severely beaten by Morsi opponents.
Morsi, for his part, seemed to be pressing relentlessly forward with plans for a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum to pass the new charter.
NBC News' Charlene Gubash, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Violence breaks out in Cairo, Egypt, outside Mohammed Morsi's presidential palace. NBC's Jim Maceda has more on the clashes and a possible constitutional compromise by the Egyptian government.
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Battle lines being drawn, nobody's right,when everybody's wrong! You better stop,hey what's that sound,everybody look whats going round! The song is called "for what it is worth" It's 40 years old at least.
Written at a time when change was sought from one generation to another, The song could be re-released
today and be just as pertanant, we have lost the ability of dialoge between each other,we no longer understand
the meaning of compromise, we have lost any hope of stability, our country has lost all of what our ancestor's came here for! The word's" Life,Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" Have been replaced by greed and the hunger of power! We have lost any compassion for our fellow human beings,it's been replaced by"what's in it for me" The golden rule has been modified,do unto other's as you would have them do unto you,but do it first!
How my generation of love and peace and kindness has morfed into this is beyond my comprehention! The insainity that now exist's in our world' is now the normal! Where did we go wrong? My first thought's are apathy,when we as a nation stopped voting,stopped caring for other's less fourtunate,the old and sick and disabled, we lost what little humanity we had left . When we stopped caring about the the ONLY home we have mother EARTH,we lost our right to live here! When we decided that our's was the only society worth having,we lost the ability to see the diversity of this planet and the odds of life being here! When we lost the ability to reason we now have the consequences! Lincoln once said " A house divided will fall" once again we are divided,whether we remain standing or fall depends on" we the people" and our strongest attribute, the ability to compromise and our genorisity to the meak,thats what made us the great nation that we were, once upon a time. Sorry that i got off topic,however the people of Egypt are in the same suitition as we are,just a little more dire. If they want to have a democratic form of government they will have to pay the same price our ancestors paid for our's,if not, it's not any of our business. Just Dan's thought's!
Well Dan, I believe you're mostly correct with the exception that "it's not any of our business". There is a very global interaction of the world's behaviors and resources, they're not local. Remember Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
Your generation conformed under the spell of money and your generation is instrumental in creating the economic miasma we call Globalization. Margaret Thatcher quote here "There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families". Up until the Viet Nam War information from the rest of world (ROW) was delayed, that didn't make us 'Isolationist', we had trade agreements etc. But we didn't have to react to each and every tragedy that occurred on the globe. With instant access to anything in real time we all get to respond to crazy crap happening everywhere. No wonder we can't pay attention to our own back yard, we are a nation of people with to much stuff on our minds - and most of that stuff doesn't even matter except that we decide it does.
Dan and tocowhitler --- After having read all that, my ex-wife came to mind. Dispationate, disenchanted, disloyal, discriminating, disengaged, greedy, money-hungry, lying, politically correct Catholic. Even a Republican. So, I can relate to what you're saying. But, my advice is, 'love it or leave it.' That's why she's my ex. Move to Honduras or something. And as far as the 60's generation goes, I missed most of it because I was too busy in Vietnam at the time and could only read the Stars and Stripes newspaper and they only told you what they wanted you to know. Then, when I came back thru San Francisco, that generation of peace loving people you speak of were throwing dried dog crap at me. Then, I tried to make sense of it all. Still working on that.
@ Tacowithtler;
I'm not sure where you stand on this issue but;
Margaret Thatcher quote holds little water in todays environment. How many individuals or families can and survive without external assistance? Can they build their own shelter with minimum comforts (warmth,
water and sanitation). Provide for their own subsistence (food, medical and clothing). Can they even make their own repairs to the house, plumbing etc.? Do they even have the education to begin such an undertaking?
Seems like the people in Egypt went from the frying pan with Mubarek to the Fire with Morsi. They wanted to live under strict Islamic Law under Morsi and they got it. Now they are complaining. I say good for them. What they really need to do is get rid of Islam.
If the people weren't living in such terror and fear of their Islamic brothers killing them for it, half of'em would be having a pig roast and breaking out the Budweisur.
What they really need to do is hunt down Morsi like Libya did Gaddafi. The people need to teach their leaders to not grab for power that's not theirs. Now the Muslim idiots have Egypt.
Islamists are evil. From Morocco to Indonesia anyone who is not for them and with them faces assassination. The Arab Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Teliban, MS23, and on across the world are the blood enemies of everyone else. The barbarians are at the gates, people. If we don't act to rid the planet of these villains, we are doomed.
Growing pains; Egyptians need to work thru this to come up with an Egyptian solution. No gaurantees, but if they can get to a balance between islamists and secular, this could be a model for the middle east. The US can not impose a solution that would last.
I regret the pain they are going thru, but this is a needed journey, just as establishing democracy in America came with growing pains.
Steve=2352647; We appear to be on the same page. I hope Morsi/Egyptians’ can make the
necessary adjustments to make the transitions a little smoother.
Picture perfect of Republicians and Democrats! What is that saying. "UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL". I see alot of falling.
I love all these posts...it keeps me on my guard against bigot blather!!!
Morsi is getting just what he deserves...his butt kicked by the people. Don't ask a theocracy to write a democratic constitution...it can't!!!
Muslims hate Chinese. So, the Chinese just hate them right back. The prophecies of the Bible clearly state that China will one day invade all of south western Asia and will stop once they've reached the Euphrates River in the Middle-East. Now, that's interesting. They could start tommorrow for all I care.
Morsy and Obama are so much alike, now we know why Obama wanted him in office. The dictators are all sticking together.
I don't believe that the majority of Egyptian people wanted the Muslim Brotherhood in control of the country. The M.B. and Egypt have a long history The M.B. was banned many times in Egypt.. In 2004 when the M.B. won a large portion of seats in the Parliament there were videos of police being called in to remove blockades at polling stations of those who opposed the M.B. During this election there were many reports of "rigging the vote", by intimidation, preventing voting etc. The youth in Egypt started their revolution but it was taken over by the M.B. The only comment I can make about Obama is, why is he no longer talking about democracy for Egypt? Hasn't said anything about it since Morsi's power grab. The M.B. truly wants to rule the world like some mad scientist. They have set their "Project" in motion and are advancing quite well. This isn't just a middle east problem, it's a world problem, and until more people are aware of the "civilization jihad" we are not going to be able to stop this madness. Take a look at the numbers of Muslims in non-Muslim countries. The M.B. has stated that they will control Europe by 2021-2022. Looking at whats happening there I can't argue with that statement.
They need the military to take control again. Nothing else will work there.
Ah yes, the Arab Spring--- and Summer is right around the corner followed bay Fall and then Winter.
And then spring again ....what a lovely time of year .....
I don't believe they are ready for Democracy. What they need is a strong Dictator, willing to make hard decisions. Hell, they might even be better with Sharia law, at least they would have something.
What in the world is everyone getting so excited about?
Just a little civil disobedience, hell we had a little right here in New America not long ago. Doesn't anybody remember those OWS folks getting their asses handed to them by the Oakland police. No big deal, it'll all blow over in a day or two and we can get back to drone strikes and the faux fiscal cliff.
They elected a Muslim idiot, now they have a Muslim idiot. Even Americans know you can't trust Muslim idiots, so we don't elect Muslim idiots.
I was going to vent rage but read that and figured why bother...lol.
I say someone should kill Muslim clerics in protest.
or maybe they should just rape them .....
and make them wear those silly bags over their head!
military coup on behalf of the opposition within a week. sadat and then mubarak wisely and violently purged the army of brotherhood members and islamists. the army is the most secular part of egyptian society. mere memebership in the brotherhood resulted in prison under sadat.
the army hates morsi and has been waiting for an opportunity. they have no future or carreers in the army if they don't act. many senior officers were responsible for inprisonment, torture and killing of brotherhood members over the years.
it will remove morsi from power, arrest him, and install a small group of temporary ministers from the opposition, the army and more moderate islamists. the opposition will welcome it.
there will be a new constitution, and government in 60 days. then civil war, just like in syria. it is the east against the west. modernity and a secular government that protects civil rights, or it is the koran sharia and bronze age islamic fascism. heil allah.
Something that comforts me is the Egyptian military's ability to tell their leader to pi$$ off if he attempts to turn the military onto the civilians. They may break out the tanks and guns but they wont use them...they didn't for Mumbarak and they wont for Moronsi!
Morsi will never hold sway over the military enough to get them to do that....unless he populates it with his M. brotherhood goons....yikes.
Yes ....I always CALL for dialogue when there are thousands of people outside my palace ......CALLING FOR MY HEAD !!! These dictatorial types are down right comical at times .....
Arrogant, power hungry, government leaders turning a deaf ear to their own citizens as they run rough shod over anyone who does not agree with them.
Coming soon to a country near you.
Isn't it interesting that those who give no quarter and sponsor the murder of innocents all over the world and would employ mind numbing, abusive laws without due process, hearings or even concern as to whether innocents or combatants are involved (they consider all non-believers targets of course) are the first to request discussions, hearings or an opportunity to create a dialogue. Yes, those who exercise no mercy are quick to ask for it.
sounds like morsi wants to be a dictator and answer to no one but himself !! all he has to do is say i hate America are Americans 500 times and that he wants to destroy the jewish nation and he will have all the support his muslim brotherhood terriost can muster. and just think we give these @!$%#s billions of dollars in aid every year.nothing like shooting yourself in the foot billions of times a year. now who's smarter.
Once again, ethnic and religious bigots take the bait!
This is not about religion, it is about POWER!!!
The question that the opposition has to ask is, following the sweeping decrees he has issued granting himself immunity from judicial sanction, why would Morsi not just invite the leaders of the opposition to the Palace for a "dialogue" and then throw them all into jail? Who could trust him not to do so?
As long as there is Islam, it WILL be about religion. Why? Islam preaches violence against any and all NON-Muslim.
Morsi is trying to make himself look like the good guy, but he already seems to have forgotten that everyone else was telling him "We need to talk" before they decided he was ignoring them. That's why he had to leave the palace to save his Muslim a s s and call up the rape squads to try and discredit the crowds who wanted to tack his hide to the shed. Egypt is f&cked and the Muslim Brotherhood has the population right where they want them. Unfortunately, the population still remembers how they ousted Hosni Mubarack and how easy it was to do.
Deja Vu all over again. Morsi in few months managed to repeat and magnify every mistake that brought down Mubarak after thirty years, and the Egyptians returned the favor. It took forty years before the Egyptians burned down the ruling party headquarters of the previous regime, today the same Egyptians are burning down the MB headquarters including their new Building in Cairo's suburb.