Egypt's leader attempts to wrestle power from military

Egypt's constitutional contest between the military and the Islamic political leadership was pitched back into crisis last night (Sunday) after Mohammed Morsi, the newly elected president, ordered the disbanded parliament to convene.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who leads the council that had governed Egypt after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, called an emergency meeting after Mr Morsi annulled a judicial order to disband the Islamic-dominated parliament.

The president's decision removes those legislative powers from the army council and returns the right to a parliament dominated by the party of Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies.

A terse statement on the state news agency said the generals met to "study and discuss the repercussions of President Mohammed Morsi's decision to reconvene parliament".

The announcement is among the first steps Mr Morsi has taken as president and establishes a clear agenda to wrestle power from Egypt's generals.

"President Mohammed Morsi ordered the reconvening of sessions of the elected parliament," said the statement read by Mr Morsi's close aide, Yasser Ali.

It added that another election will be held within 60 days of a new constitution being approved by the nation in a public referendum. The charter is not expected to be drafted before the end of the year.

The president is keen to ensure that parliament will be responsible for law-making in the meantime, not the generals who had appointed themselves interim rulers with full legislative power until Mr Morsi's election on June 30.

The Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the lower house of parliament to be dissolved on June 14 after finding that one third of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated house were party members who had run for seats reserved for independent candidates.

The generals implemented the decision two days later and then issued a decree outlining presidential powers on June 17, even before presidential election votes were counted.

It also ruled as unconstitutional the political isolation law, which sought to bar senior members of Mr Mubarak's regime and top members of his party from running for public office for 10 years. Mr Morsi beat Ahmed Shafiq - Mr Mubarak's last prime minister - in the presidential election.

Yesterday's decrees came hours after Mr Morsi met William Burns, the US deputy secretary of state, and an announcement that President Barack Obama will meet Egypt's first Islamist leader at the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

Freedom and Justice, an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, controls almost half of the seats in parliament. These representatives combined with those of the Salafi Nour Party mean that Islamists hold two thirds of the legislature.

Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Doha Center, which carries out political research, said the apparent failure to inform the military could set the stage for a showdown between the two sides.

"If it was a power play on the part of Morsi then it is going to lead to unprecedented tensions because it's a direct challenge to the legitimacy of both SCAF [Supreme Council of Armed Forces] and the judiciary."

While it was difficult to see how the military could abide by the presidential decree, the outcome of this confrontation will establish who will win the upper hand in the future of the Egyptian state.

"This announcement from the president will undoubtedly result in a clash with the military council and the high court. It is possible the military will still forbid the members from entering government," said Amr Hashim Rabie, a political expert from Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategically Studies.