Egypt’s military warns against political disputes

December 8, 2012 at 9:32 a.m.

by The Associated Press

Vendors provide demonstrators with food and drink outside the presidential palace, after tens of thousands marched on the presidential palace pushing past barbed wire fences installed by the army, in Cairo, Egypt. during the early hours of Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. Egypt postponed early voting on a contentious draft constitution, and aides to President Mohammed Morsi floated the possibility of canceling the whole referendum in the first signs Friday that the Islamic leader is finally yielding to days of protests and deadly street clashes.
Vendors provide demonstrators with food and drink outside the presidential palace, after tens of thousands marched on the presidential palace pushing past barbed wire fences installed by the army, in Cairo, Egypt. during the early hours of Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. Egypt postponed early voting on a contentious draft constitution, and aides to President Mohammed Morsi floated the possibility of canceling the whole referendum in the first signs Friday that the Islamic leader is finally yielding to days of protests and deadly street clashes.

CAIRO — Egypt’s military has warned of ‘disastrous consequences’ if the political crisis gripping the country is not resolved through dialogue.

The military said in a statement read on state TV on Saturday that serious dialogue is the “best and only” way to overcome the nation’s deepening political dispute.

Violent protests and clashes between supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his opponents have left half a dozen civilians killed and several offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in flames since the crisis began last month.

Morsi has called for a national dialogue but opponents say he must first cancel a Dec. 15 referendum on a contentious draft constitution and rescind decrees granting him immunity from any oversight.

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