Al-Nour party met on Thursday evening with members of the National Salvation Front (NSF) and some of the political figures behind the Al-Azhar plan.
Al-Nour offered an initiative aimed at ending the current crisis, welcomed by the NSF during a previous meeting conducted over two weeks ago.
Following the closed meeting, Al-Dostour Party spokesperson Khaled Dawoud told Al-Hayah TV Channel the NSF might take part in the national dialogue sponsored by the president. Al-Dostour is an NSF member party.
Al-Nour Chairman Youness Makhyoun told state-owned Al-Ahram that President Mohamed Morsi is ready to conduct dialogue with all political parties concerning all the points of Al-Nour’s initiative, forming a coalition government being a primary concern. A delegation from Al-Nour met with Morsi on Saturday to discuss their initiative. The outcome of the meeting was reviewed during the party’s meeting with the NSF, Dawoud said.
“The front doesn’t mind taking part in the dialogue,” Dawoud said, “yet we demand an initiative showing goodwill from the president. If the president states he is ready to sack Hesham Qandil’s cabinet, that would be enough cause for us to join the dialogue”.
Other points agreed on by Al-Nour Party and the NSF include: forming a committee tasked with amending the newly-enacted constitution, and sacking the current prosecutor general and replacing him with a legally-appointed one. Prosecutor General Tala’at Abdallah was appointed by the president in November 2012, a move widely regarded as illegal since the law states that the Supreme Judicial Council should appoint the prosecutor general.
Dawoud stated that the NSF will meet next Sunday or Monday to discuss the possibility of joining the national dialogue according to the terms agreed upon with Al-Nour. He added that Al-Azhar’s ten-point plan, which calls for a shift towards a peaceful political process, could be a suitable agenda for the national dialogue.
The NSF has been refusing to join any president-sponsored national dialogues, saying that unless there is a guarantee that the results of the dialogue will be enacted, the process is useless. Morsi has invited NSF leaders, among other political figures, to two national dialogues, one in December 2012 and the other in January 2013. A third general invite was issued on Wednesday calling upon all political movements to attend the next dialogue session, the date of which is yet to be revealed.
Additional reporting by Joel Gulhane
