Leaders of the National Salvation Front during the press conference. From left: Hamdeen Sabbahi, Mohammed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa (Photo AP)
Egypt's National Salvation Front (NSF), a coalition of opposition parties and groups, rejected on Monday an invitation by President Mohamed Morsi to hold talks aimed at resolving the current political crisis.
At a press conference at the Wafd Party headquarters in Cairo, the NSF rejected Morsi's proposed dialogue as a "facade" in a statement read out by Constitution Party leader Mohamed ElBaradei. The statemenmt said that ''certain conditions needed to be met in order to guarantee a serious dialogue".
"We are not against holding talks, but we will not let the Egyptian people down by engaging in fake dialogue," ElBaradei said. "Many missteps have led to the current situation…security measures will not solve the current crisis, but a political solution must be found."
The NSF members, former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabbahi and Amr Moussa among them along with Wafd Party chief El-Sayed El-Badawi, said they would soon unveil their "conditions" for dialogue. The NSF had earlier proposed five demands that it said were necessary for national consensus. "We met with Morsi earlier, and all we got from the meeting was a dictatorial constitutional declaration," said Sabbahi. "The second dialogue meeting did not accomplish anything either."
Update: In the absence of the NSF Morsi held the dialogue meeting on Monday with others. Present at the meeting were the head of the Freedom and Justice Party Saad El-Katatni, head of the Salafist Nour Party Younes Makhion, founder of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh, head of Al-Wasat party Abou El-Ela Mady, and head of liberal Ghad Al-Thawra party Ayman Nour among others. Results of this meeting without the key opposition figures are as yet unknown.
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