CAIRO, July 1, (Agencies): Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy began his first full day in office on Sunday with his powers circumscribed by the military as he tries to pick a new cabinet to carry out his campaign pledges.
After being sworn in as the country’s first freely elected civilian president on Saturday, Morsy formally received a transfer of power and pledge of support from the military.
But the 60-year-old’s swearing-in ceremony took place at the constitutional court in Cairo, despite Morsy’s wish that it take place before the now disbanded Islamist-led parliament.
The military dissolved parliament last month following a court order in what the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsy stood down after his election, described as a “soft coup.”
Morsy on Sunday chaired a meeting of Egypt’s outgoing cabinet led by Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzuri who was named last year by the military and which has been asked to stay on in a caretaker capacity.
Official media said they discussed the security issue and the economy, as Egypt signed an accord with the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank for $1 billion in funding for the purchase of energy and food products.
In Saturday’s handover at Cairo’s Hike Step base, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), vowed to support the Islamist Morsy.
“We will stand with the new president, elected by the people,” Tantawi said in a speech, in the ceremony ending the military led transitional period since Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow in an uprising in February 2011.
“I accept the transfer of power,” Morsy said at the same base where members of the once-banned Brotherhood had faced military trials under Mubarak.
However, the ritual masked a political impasse ripe for future confrontation.
The SCAF assumed legislative powers after it disbanded parliament and also formed a powerful national security council headed by the president but dominated by the generals.
The military also reserves the right to appoint a new constituent assembly should the one elected by the old parliament be disbanded by a court decision expected on September 1,
The military is also expected to want a say over sensitive ministries such as the defence ministry, headed by Tantawi, and the foreign ministry.
It had said the president would be able to appoint or dismiss any minister, but a Morsy aide told AFP before his inauguration there were still ongoing discussions with the generals on where their powers stop and Morsy’s start.
Morsy has been consulting a cross-section of Egyptian society before appointing a premier and a cabinet made up mostly of technocrats.
After taking the oath of office on Saturday, the new president in a speech at Cairo University pointedly mentioned the “elected parliament” several times and said the army should resume its normal role.
“The elected institutions will return to fulfilling their roles. And the great military will devote itself to the task of protecting the country,” he said.
An Israeli source said on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had written to Morsy urging him to uphold the 1979 peace accord between their two countries and wishing him good luck.
The letter, first reported by Israeli daily Haaretz, “stressed Israel’s desire to continue cooperation and to strengthen the peace,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Haaretz said Israeli officials had decided to put off attempts to organise a phone call between Morsy and Netanyahu, but said the Israeli leader had dispatched an envoy to meet Egyptian security officials.
But Morsy received a call on Sunday from Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, who thanked him for supporting the Palestinians, the official Egyptian MENA news agency reported.
Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate, sent Morsy a message of his own on Sunday, his office said, in which he wrote that “contrary to war, peace is the victory of both sides.”
Morsy has repeated that Egypt — the first Arab state to make formal peace with Israel — would respect its international treaties, in an allusion to the 1979 accord.
As president, he is not expected to radically change Egypt’s foreign policy, especially towards Israel, in which the military is expected to exercise its clout.
Meanwhile, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent Sunday a cable of congratulation to the new Egyptian President Morsy.
The Amir wished Morsy the best of luck on his duty as President and hoped that he would meet the expectations of the Egyptian people.
He also extended his best wishes to the Egyptian people in achieving further prosperity and growth under secure and stable comprehensive policies in all parts of the country, and for Egypt’s regional and international roles to continue serving Arab and Islamic interests.
His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah both sent similar cables on the occasion.
On Sunday, uniformed police and state security officers sporting suits and dark glasses tried to deal calmly with the crowd hoping to enter the presidential precincts, taking down names or suggesting that people make written requests for help.
Visitors pleading volubly for an audience with Morsy were occasionally let inside the palace grounds.
An old woman wearing a black veil, Ahlam Mohamed, sat outside on the pavement. “I want a job for my son. He has been staying at home for months and he is the one who feeds us. Without him we will die,” she said.
Haitham Ezzat, 29, demanded compensation because a facial injury sustained during the anti-Mubarak revolt had stopped him working.
“I am hoping to meet the president,” said another man, 61-year-old Sayed Rashad, who said he had not been compensated for a war wound even despite filing a lawsuit against the army.
Workers laid off during Mubarak-era economic reforms brandished a petition naming 15 companies they accused of illegally firing employees.
“We are here to tell the president to help us quickly. If he wants to get the production cycle moving again, we need to be paid and secure all our rights,” said Atef Mondy, 38, head of the Movement for Fired Workers.
Some 40 percent of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day. The uprising was driven by a sense that nothing could get worse, but for many it has.
The economy is floundering and joblessness is growing after political turmoil hammered investment and tourism.
State finances are stretched, which will make it hard for Morsy to spend his way to popularity. His policy programme is anyway geared towards liberalisation to spur investment, raising the risk of deeper economic pain in the near term.
That would come as a shock to many Egyptians who are hoping Morsy will turn on state taps and provide benefits on a far greater scale than those distributed by his Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood’s charity and social welfare networks helped to make it one of Egypt’s most popular political forces, providing cheap food, medicine and other essentials to the poor.
Some wonder whether Morsy, whose prerogatives were clipped by the military even before he took office on Saturday, has the power to drive through radical change.