Egypt's liberal opposition leader on Wednesday called for a broad national dialogue with the government, all political factions and the powerful military, aimed at stopping the country's eruption of political violence that has left 60 dead the past week. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei's appeal appeared to be aimed at responding to a sharp warning by the head of the armed forces a day earlier that Egypt could collapse unless the country's feuding political factions reconcile. But so far the opposition National Salvation Front headed by ElBaradei and the government of President Mohammed Morsi have been at loggerheads, with the front demanding Morsi make major concessions as a condition for any dialogue. Morsi has ignored their demands, holding his own “national dialogue” program, mainly with his own Islamist allies. In a Tweet, ElBaradei called for an immediate meeting between Morsi, the defence and interior ministers, the Brotherhood's political party, the National Salvation Front and parties of the ultraconservative Salafi movement “to take urgent steps to stop the violence and start a serious dialogue.” He said stopping the violence is the priority, but stuck by the front's previous conditions for holding a dialogue — that Morsi form a national unity government and form a commission to amend contentious articles of the Islamist-backed constitution. There was no immediate response from the presidency or the Muslim Brotherhood on ElBaradei's new call. Morsi was on a brief visit to Germany and was expected back in Egypt later Wednesdsay.
