Egypt opposition leader: No dialogue with Morsi until rescinds 'dictatorial' powers - Haaretz

Prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday there could be no dialogue with Egypt's president until he rescinds a "dictatorial" decree that he said gave the Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi the powers of a pharaoh.

"There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," ElBaradei said in an interview with Reuters and the Associated Press after talks with other opposition figures.

"I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity," he said.

Also on Saturday, the body representing Egypt's judges called for an immediate strike in all courts and prosecutors' offices in protest against Morsi's decree expanding his powers.

At a meeting in Cairo, the Judges Club called on Morsi to retract the decree and to reinstate Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, the Hosni Mubarak-era prosecutor general who was sacked as part of the decision unveiled on Thursday.

The call to strike came after, earlier in the day, judges in the Egyptian city of Alexandria judges decided to go on strike in protest at a decree issued Morsi which shields his decisions from judicial review, the state news agency reported.

The judges' club in Alexandria said work would be suspended in all courts and prosecution offices until the decree was reversed, the agency reported.

The statement came as Egypt's highest judicial authority said the d marked an "unprecedented attack" on the independence of the judiciary.

At an emergency meeting called to discuss the decree issued by Morsi on Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Council urged "the president of the republic to distance this decree from everything that violates the judicial authority."

Political parties angered by Morsi's decision have called on their supporters to protest against the move on Tuesday in Cairo.

Leftist, liberal, socialist parties and others have said their followers should march to Tahrir Square with the aim of "toppling the fascist, despotic constitutional declaration" issued by Morsi on Thursday, according to a statement from one of the parties.

"We are facing a historic moment in which we either complete our revolution or we abandon it to become prey for a group that has put its narrow party interests above the national interest," said the statement, issued by the liberal Dustour Party on its Facebook page late on Friday.