As protests continued, President Mohammed Morsi rescinded a controversial decree he issued weeks ago, assuming control of the judiciary. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
CAIRO -- Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday issued a decree annulling the most controversial parts of earlier orders that granted him sweeping powers, including the ability to make laws and decisions that are not subject to judicial reviews.
The earlier orders had led to three weeks of violent clashes between Morsi supporters and the political opposition.
The president no longer has absolute powers, but his government's draft constitution will stand in its current form and will not be subject to change before a referendum set for Dec. 15, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported from Cairo.
The new declaration still calls for the referendum to go ahead as scheduled, but the new referendum will not be a simple "yes" or "no."
If the draft constitution is rejected, Morsi said he will ask the public to directly vote for a new 100-member constituent assembly to write a new constitution. The existing 100-member assembly was appointed by the dissolved parliament.?
Earlier Saturday,?Egypt's military warned of "disastrous consequences" if the crisis that sent tens of thousands of protesters back into the streets was not resolved, signaling the army's return to an increasingly polarized and violent political scene.
The military said serious dialogue is the "best and only" way to overcome the nation's deepening conflict.
"Anything other than that (dialogue) will force us into a dark tunnel with disastrous consequences; something which we won't allow," the statement said.
Failing to reach a consensus "is in the interest of neither side. The nation as a whole will pay the price," it added. The statement was read by an unnamed military official on state television.
NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin and journalist Mona Eltahawy discuss developments around Egypt's crisis.
Egypt's once all-powerful military, which temporarily took over governing the country after the revolution that ousted autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak, has largely been sidelined since handing over power to Morsi weeks after his election.
But it has begun asserting itself again, with soldiers sealing off the presidential palace with tanks and barbed wire, as rival protests and street battles between Morsi's supporters and his opponents turned increasingly violent.
The statement said the military "realizes its national responsibility in protecting the nation's higher interests" and state institutions.
At least six civilians have been killed and several offices of the president's Muslim Brotherhood set on fire since the crisis began on Nov. 22. The two sides also have staged a number of sit-ins around state institutions, including the presidential palace where some of the most violent clashes occurred.
Images of the military's elite Republican Guards unit surrounding the area around the palace showed one of the most high-profile troop deployment since the army handed over power to Morsi on June 30.
Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi is feeling the pressure ever since his decree granting him nearly absolute powers. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
A sit-in by Morsi's opponents around the palace continued Saturday, with protesters setting up roadblocks with tanks behind them amid reports that the president's supporters planned rival protests. By midday Saturday, TV footage showed the military setting up a new wall of cement blocks around the palace.
Tensions have escalated since Morsi issued new decrees granting himself and an Islamist-dominated constitutional assembly immunity from oversight by the judiciary. The president's allies then rushed through a constitution and he announced a Dec. 15 nationwide referendum on the charter.
The president has insisted his decrees were meant to protect the country's transition to democracy from former regime figures trying to derail it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
NBC's Ayman Moheldeen reports the latest from Egypt where thousands of protesters surged around the presidential palace; and Michael Rubin, Former Pentagon Adviser on Iran & Iraq, provides perspective.
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