President Mohamed Morsy met with over 40 leading political and legal figures on Saturday, to discuss solutions to the current political and constitutional crisis.
On Thursday, Morsy invited all political groups, including opposition and legal experts, to meet for dialogue and reach a national resolution on the escalating constitutional crisis.
The opposition’s main political groups and parties including Al-Dostour Party, the Public Coalition, Strong Egypt and 6 April have rejected Morsy’s invitation.
The National Front for the Salvation of the Revolution, which is a coalition of non-Islamist political groups, issued a statement on Friday condemning Morsy’s speech. It said his words ignored “repeated demands for conciliatory solutions that can guide Egypt out of this current catastrophic situation.”
Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al Tayyeb, Vice President Mahmoud Mekki and presidential adviser Pakinam Al-Sharkawy attended the meeting. Legal experts Ahmed Kamal Abu Magd, Thawrat Badawy and Mahmoud Al-Khodairy were also present at the meeting, which lasted more than three hours.
Political representatives included Head of Freedom and Justice Party Saad El-Katatny, head of Al-Nour Party Emad Abdel Ghafour, Al-Wasat Party members Essam Sultan and Abul Ela Mady, head of Ghad Al-Thawra party Ayman Nour, and head of Construction and Reform Party Ramy Lakah.
Thirty minutes after the meeting began, Ahmed Mahran, head of Cairo’s Centre for Political and Legal studies, said he withdrew from the meeting because “Presidential Adviser Mohamed Fouad Gadalla does not give anyone the chance to talk.” Presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali denied this, saying Mahran did not initially attend the meeting.
Haiyam Abdel Hamid, a volunteer member at the Constituent Assembly, said she was banned from entering the meeting. Ali said she was not originally invited for the talks.
On another note, Gadalla has postponed a scheduled meeting with revolutionary powers that was originally planned to be held in parallel with Morsy’s talks with political groups.
