Egypt’s Morsi, looking to army for support, pushes charter that enshrines military’s power

CAIRO — With tanks and barbed wire ringing the presidential palace, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday called for a “national dialogue” but remained determined to press forward with a controversial referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has plunged this nation into a political crisis.

In a televised speech, Morsi called Wednesday night’s clashes between his Islamist backers and liberal, secular and other opponents the work of “infiltrators” inside the opposition. He said some protesters had been paid and armed to perpetrate “thuggery” and “terrorism,” harsh rhetoric that is sure to rally his Muslim Brotherhood supporters and inflame opponents, who see Egypt’s first democratically elected president as an Islamist dictator in the making.

Video

Egypt is experiencing its worst crisis there since the revolution two years ago. Outrage has erupted over President Morsi's power grab and proposed constitution.

Latest stories from Foreign

English-language proposal has French up in arms

Edward Cody

Many are outraged by a bill that would allow French universities to teach more courses in English.

N. Korea fires 3 missiles into sea, South says

Chico Harlan

The launch tests the recent calm on the peninsula after a period of heightened tension.

E.U. farmers fear trade deal could open door to GMO crops

Michael Birnbaum

Concerns over genetically modified seeds could cripple talks that aim to boost European, U.S. economies.

Deadly bombs target Sunnis in Iraq

Sameer N. Yacoub

At least 76 are killed in Baghdad and surrounding areas, stoking fears of a new round of sectarian bloodshed.

U.S. and Burma quickly expand ties after two decades of estrangement

Joseph J. Schatz

American companies are looking to make up for lost time in Southeast Asia’s last untapped market.

But if Morsi appeared emboldened, it may have had less to do with his support from the Muslim Brotherhood than with his newfound friendship with Egypt’s vaunted, wealthy, U.S.-supplied military, which deployed tanks and armored trucks in defense of the presidential palace early Thursday.

That pointed display by the Republican Guard — a discrete military unit charged with protecting the palace — followed a night of clashes that left seven people dead and more than 700 wounded. And it reflected a closeness between Morsi and the military sealed for now by the draft constitution, which he is so insistently advocating and which enshrines the military’s vast powers and autonomy to an unprecedented degree.

In a telephone call to Morsi later Thursday, President Obama expressed “deep concern’’ about the deaths and injuries of protesters and said that “all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable,” the White House said.

The relatively small show of force by Egypt’s military — seven tanks, 10 armored trucks and a few dozen soldiers who set out coils of barbed wire — followed a meeting early Thursday that included Morsi; his newly appointed, young and openly Islamist defense minister, Abdul Fatah Khalil al-Sisi; Gen. Hamid Zaki, the newly appointed head of the Republican Guard, considered a Morsi loyalist; and other officials, a spokesman said.

Although the move Thursday by the Republican Guard by no means indicates that Morsi has deep or widespread support in the military, which is as divided and complex as Egypt itself, it suggested that the army remains the ultimate arbiter of power in post-revolutionary Egypt, just as it has been for decades. And it marked another political rearrangement in a turbulent transition that has seen many of them — in this case, a turnaround in the relationship between the two most powerful institutions in the country, after decades in which Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters were repressed with the backing of the military.

Although some observers cautioned against reading too much into Thursday’s tank deployments, other analysts considered it a significant moment for Morsi.

“The most plausible interpretation is indeed that al-Sisi and the incumbent high command are standing firmly by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Robert Springborg, an expert on the Egyptian army at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. “They chose essentially to stand with him, clearing the area of protesters.”