CAIRO — A small group of protesters threw incendiary devices and fireworks over the walls of Egypt’s presidential palace during Friday demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi, capping a week of violence throughout the country that had left more than 50 people dead.
By early evening, the response by the security forces appeared to be limited. Officers in armored personnel vehicles fired tear gas canisters, which the protesters picked up and also hurled over the palace walls. Water cannons were fired from the palace, as much to douse the fires as to disperse the protesters. The clashes disrupted what had been a small, peaceful afternoon sit-in attended by antigovernment activists who called for the fall of Mr. Morsi’s government.
By early evening, there was no immediate sign that the clashes were turning into a broader conflagration, like the deadly violence that broke out at the palace in December, when supporters of President Morsi fought with anti-government protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood said on its Twitter account that it was not sending its members to the protest, and that it would not “be dragged into violence.”
Away from the presidential palace in central Cairo, thousands of anti-Morsi protesters marched on the Nile Corniche close to Tahir Square, chanting, “The people want the fall of the regime.”
The demonstrations came a day after Egypt’s feuding political groups sat down at a rare meeting to condemn the recent violence, in a gathering organized by revolutionary activists who came to prominence during the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak.
The meeting, which included representatives of secular leftist and liberal groups as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, failed to resolve some of the most divisive issues facing the country, including whether Mr. Morsi would form a national unity government or amend the country’s newly approved constitution, as some opposition leaders have demanded.
Nor was there any assurance that the meeting’s principal call — to end the violence — would be heeded on the streets. Clashes during protests have become the latest polarizing issue in Egypt’s turbulent transition, with Mr. Morsi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement largely blaming shadowy instigators for the violence. Others, though, have faulted the country’s poorly trained security forces for a heavy-handed response to protests.
The organizers of the meeting included a leader of the April 6th youth movement, three Brotherhood defectors and Wael Ghonim, a former Google executive who played a prominent role in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. Among those attending the talks on Thursday were Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations diplomat and the coordinator of the largest secular-leaning opposition bloc; Amr Moussa, who served as foreign minister in the Mubarak era; and Hamdeen Sabahi, the founder of a Nasserist party.
Television images revealed a tableau that would have been unlikely a week ago: those leaders sitting with Saad el-Katatni, the head of Mr. Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, or F.J.P., the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the meeting, according to Reuters, Mr. ElBaradei expressed optimism about the effort, saying, “Each of us will do what we can, with good will, to build trust again among the factions of the Egyptian nation.”
This week, Egypt’s defense minister warned that the state could “collapse,” in what was seen as a stern warning to both Mr. Morsi and his opponents to start acting more responsibly. In another display of high-level concern, the talks on Thursday were held under the chairmanship of the country’s leading Muslim scholar, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Al Azhar mosque and university.
After the meeting, he said that a national dialogue, “in which all the components of the Egyptian society participate without any exclusion” was “the only means to resolve any problems or disagreements.” He urged the participants to “commit to a peaceful competition for power” and to prohibit “all types of violence and coercion to achieve goals, demands and policies.”
Despite the day’s strong statements, many doubted whether any of the participants had the influence to alter the dynamics on the ground. In the last few days, the violence has abated in the cities along the Suez Canal, including in Port Said, where most of the deaths occurred — but only after the police largely disappeared from the streets, leaving the army in charge of security. In Cairo, clashes occur daily at what has become a regular spot, at the foot of the Kasr el-Nil bridge near Tahrir Square.
“The protests and the violence seem to not be in the full control of anyone, including the opposition,” said Samer S. Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University and an expert on Egyptian politics. “Things are more critical in some senses than the days when Mubarak was ousted. The authority of the state is really in question. Some people are no longer accepting the legitimacy of political institutions, including the presidency — and not just the officeholder,” he said.
Several factors would determine whether efforts at a dialogue, like the one on Thursday, could pull Egypt from the brink, he said. They could succeed, he said, if Mr. Morsi and the Brotherhood “realize the gravity of the situation, and realize, in a self-interested way, that they have lost many people who supported them previously, including many who held their noses and voted for Morsi,” Mr. Shehata said.
“Will Morsi and the F.J.P. make serious concessions,” he asked, “including vesting the opposition in the process?”
Even then, he added: “Will the people on the street, who aren’t following the instructions of the opposition, take the developments to heart and go home?”
Despite the attempts at reconciliation, the government appeared to be continuing a pattern of “delegitimizing the opposition,” as Mr. Shehata put it. The general prosecutor’s office announced the latest arrest of a member of the Black Bloc, a mysterious and possibly minor antigovernment group that officials have labeled a terrorist organization, blaming it for some of the violence.
Several purported members of the group were arrested Wednesday. The person arrested on Thursday, the prosecutor asserted, was carrying out an “Israeli scheme” to bomb oil companies and other vital institutions, according to state news media.
Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.
By early evening, the response by the security forces appeared to be limited. Officers in armored personnel vehicles fired tear gas canisters, which the protesters picked up and also hurled over the palace walls. Water cannons were fired from the palace, as much to douse the fires as to disperse the protesters. The clashes disrupted what had been a small, peaceful afternoon sit-in attended by antigovernment activists who called for the fall of Mr. Morsi’s government.
By early evening, there was no immediate sign that the clashes were turning into a broader conflagration, like the deadly violence that broke out at the palace in December, when supporters of President Morsi fought with anti-government protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood said on its Twitter account that it was not sending its members to the protest, and that it would not “be dragged into violence.”
Away from the presidential palace in central Cairo, thousands of anti-Morsi protesters marched on the Nile Corniche close to Tahir Square, chanting, “The people want the fall of the regime.”
The demonstrations came a day after Egypt’s feuding political groups sat down at a rare meeting to condemn the recent violence, in a gathering organized by revolutionary activists who came to prominence during the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak.
The meeting, which included representatives of secular leftist and liberal groups as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, failed to resolve some of the most divisive issues facing the country, including whether Mr. Morsi would form a national unity government or amend the country’s newly approved constitution, as some opposition leaders have demanded.
Nor was there any assurance that the meeting’s principal call — to end the violence — would be heeded on the streets. Clashes during protests have become the latest polarizing issue in Egypt’s turbulent transition, with Mr. Morsi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood movement largely blaming shadowy instigators for the violence. Others, though, have faulted the country’s poorly trained security forces for a heavy-handed response to protests.
The organizers of the meeting included a leader of the April 6th youth movement, three Brotherhood defectors and Wael Ghonim, a former Google executive who played a prominent role in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. Among those attending the talks on Thursday were Mohamed ElBaradei, a former United Nations diplomat and the coordinator of the largest secular-leaning opposition bloc; Amr Moussa, who served as foreign minister in the Mubarak era; and Hamdeen Sabahi, the founder of a Nasserist party.
Television images revealed a tableau that would have been unlikely a week ago: those leaders sitting with Saad el-Katatni, the head of Mr. Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party, or F.J.P., the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the meeting, according to Reuters, Mr. ElBaradei expressed optimism about the effort, saying, “Each of us will do what we can, with good will, to build trust again among the factions of the Egyptian nation.”
This week, Egypt’s defense minister warned that the state could “collapse,” in what was seen as a stern warning to both Mr. Morsi and his opponents to start acting more responsibly. In another display of high-level concern, the talks on Thursday were held under the chairmanship of the country’s leading Muslim scholar, Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Al Azhar mosque and university.
After the meeting, he said that a national dialogue, “in which all the components of the Egyptian society participate without any exclusion” was “the only means to resolve any problems or disagreements.” He urged the participants to “commit to a peaceful competition for power” and to prohibit “all types of violence and coercion to achieve goals, demands and policies.”
Despite the day’s strong statements, many doubted whether any of the participants had the influence to alter the dynamics on the ground. In the last few days, the violence has abated in the cities along the Suez Canal, including in Port Said, where most of the deaths occurred — but only after the police largely disappeared from the streets, leaving the army in charge of security. In Cairo, clashes occur daily at what has become a regular spot, at the foot of the Kasr el-Nil bridge near Tahrir Square.
“The protests and the violence seem to not be in the full control of anyone, including the opposition,” said Samer S. Shehata, an assistant professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University and an expert on Egyptian politics. “Things are more critical in some senses than the days when Mubarak was ousted. The authority of the state is really in question. Some people are no longer accepting the legitimacy of political institutions, including the presidency — and not just the officeholder,” he said.
Several factors would determine whether efforts at a dialogue, like the one on Thursday, could pull Egypt from the brink, he said. They could succeed, he said, if Mr. Morsi and the Brotherhood “realize the gravity of the situation, and realize, in a self-interested way, that they have lost many people who supported them previously, including many who held their noses and voted for Morsi,” Mr. Shehata said.
“Will Morsi and the F.J.P. make serious concessions,” he asked, “including vesting the opposition in the process?”
Even then, he added: “Will the people on the street, who aren’t following the instructions of the opposition, take the developments to heart and go home?”
Despite the attempts at reconciliation, the government appeared to be continuing a pattern of “delegitimizing the opposition,” as Mr. Shehata put it. The general prosecutor’s office announced the latest arrest of a member of the Black Bloc, a mysterious and possibly minor antigovernment group that officials have labeled a terrorist organization, blaming it for some of the violence.
Several purported members of the group were arrested Wednesday. The person arrested on Thursday, the prosecutor asserted, was carrying out an “Israeli scheme” to bomb oil companies and other vital institutions, according to state news media.
Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.