CFR Update 11/26

Top of the Agenda: Egypt Faces Crisis as Morsi Meets With Judges

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is set to meet senior judges on Monday in an attempt to ease a mounting crisis (BBC)

over a package of decrees announced Thursday that grants him sweeping powers and places him above court oversight. The decree sparked violent protests nationwide as activists camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a third day on Sunday (AlJazeera), blocking traffic with barricades to protest what they said was a power grab by Morsi. Several prominent opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, have said they will not engage in dialogue with the president until he rescinds the measure.

Analysis

"The transition was already in crisis: most non-Islamist forces had withdrawn from the panel writing the constitution, and some were hoping that it would be dissolved by the constitutional court which was to rule in early December. Mr Morsi's decisions

gave the panel two more months to complete its work, as liberals had demanded; but it also protected an assembly dominated by Islamist forces," writes Roula Khalaf for the Financial Times.

"A full-blown retraction of the decree might be seen as an unbearable blow to Morsi's credibility, but he may be persuaded to scale back some of its more problematic provisions

. Much also depends on whether protesters are willing to back down from their bottom-line demand -- Morsi's removal -- and settle for a more realistic compromise," writes Mara Revkin for Foreign Policy.

"[T]here is an accusation that the underlying aim is to enable the constitutional assembly - currently dominated by Islamists - to write an Islamist constitution for Egypt

. That is why President Mursi's move has produced such bitter, and potentially dangerous, divisions in the country," writes Jon Leyne for the BBC.