CAIRO, June 26 (Xinhua) --
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi offered
on Wednesday to form an independent
committee to amend the constitution,
with the participation of all
political forces and
parties.
Morsi said so during
a televised speech, only days before
the planned massive protests against
him to be held on June 30 which
marks the first anniversary of his
rule.
The president also called
for forming a higher committee in
charge of "national
reconciliation."
Ahead of the
Sunday protests which seek to oust
Morsi and press for an early
election, the embattled president said
the country's youths were marginalized
and their efforts could be used
in the political arena, in forms
of parties.
To placate the
protesters, mainly the young ones,
Morsi assigned all ministers and
governors to have deputies younger
than 40 years old.
"Oh..
protesters, keep it peaceful." Morsi
told protesters that if they insist
on going for demonstrations, the
country would only slip into
violence.
The National Security
Council is responsible for taking all
the necessary steps to maintain the
country's security, he said, adding
that "I stand before you as an
Egyptian citizen, not as the holder
of an office."
In his
Wednesday remarks, which Morsi referred
to as "a disclosure speech," the
president admitted that he had made
mistakes since he came to office
in June 2012.
"I made efforts
along with honest people, so sometimes
I was right and sometimes I was
wrong," the president said. "I bear
my share of responsibility for the
current conditions and I am working
for correcting them."
Meanwhile,
Morsi warned that political divisions
in Egypt " threaten to paralyze" the
country, blaming enemies of Egypt for
hindering its new
democracy.
"Egypt faces many
challenges. The polarization has reached
a stage that could threaten our
democratic experience and paralyze the
nation," he said, while promising
reforms and calling for dialogue in
a bid to calm down protesters
ahead of Sunday's
rallies.
He insisted that he
was working for the goals of
the " revolution" that toppled ex-President
Hosni Mubarak in 2011. "For the
revolution to reach its goals, there
must be swift reforms at the
root, in all the state's
institutions and structures."
"I
took responsibility for a country
mired in corruption and was faced
with a war to make me fail,"
said Morsi, who named some of
his "enemies" including former rival
in the presidential race, Ahmed
Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime
minister.
He said that
"fugitive Shafiq" had been conspiring
against him to urge a coup
against a freely-elected
president.
"He is wanted and
he is abroad plotting and instigating
a coup to overthrow the current
regime, which is a crime," said
Morsi.
The president also took
the chance to apologize to the
Egyptian people for the ongoing fuel
crisis, attributing it to acts of
smugglers who trade fuel in the
black market.
"A large part
of the crisis is made-up," Morsi
stressed, saying that the state would
continue controlling the provision of
petroleum to gas stations "through
smart cards."
He said the
licenses of some gas stations that
declined to work and serve the
citizens would be
withdrawn.
Hours before Morsi's
speech, clashes in Daqahliya governorate
of Egypt killed at least two
people and injured over 230 after
supporters of Morsi staged a march
calling for backing the legitimacy of
the Islamist-oriented
president.
Meanwhile, hundreds have
flocked into the Tahrir Square in
downtown Cairo, the center of the
massive demonstrations that led to the
fall of Mubarak in 2011, in
preparation for sit-ins. They are
mainly from the "Rebel" campaign,
which has over the months collected
more than 15 million signatures against
Morsi.
