Egyptian Military Dissolves Parliament

The statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, read on television, effectively put Egypt under direct military authority, thrusting the country into territory uncharted since republican Egypt was founded in 1952. Though enjoying popular support, the military must now cope with the formidable task of negotiating a post-revolutionary landscape still basking in the glow of Mr. Mubarak’s fall, but beset by demands to ease Egyptians’ many hardships.

Since seizing power from Mr. Mubarak on Friday, the military has struck a reassuring note, responding in words and actions to the platform articulated by hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square. But beyond more protests, there is almost no check on the sweep of military rule. Its statement said it would form a committee to draft constitutional amendments — pointedly keeping it in its hands, not the opposition’s — though it promised to put them before a referendum.

Even as calm seemed to be settling over Egypt, antigovernment demonstrations erupted in Yemen, with protesters clashing violently with security forces on Sunday. A small group tried to rush the palace of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but was beaten back by riot police officers.

In Algeria, opposition groups meeting on Sunday vowed to hold weekly protests against the government in the capital, Algiers, said the head of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, Mustapha Bouchachi. Around 300 people were arrested Saturday at a demonstration in the heart of the city that was stifled by a heavy police presence, the League and other opposition groups said.

While opposition leaders in Egypt welcomed the Egyptian military’s moves, some have quietly raised worries about the future role of an institution that has been a pillar of the status quo, playing a crucial behind-the-scenes role in preserving its vast business interests and political capital.

“Over the next six months, I am afraid the army will brainwash the people to think that the military is the best option,” said Dina Aboul Seoud, a 35-year-old protester, still in the square on Sunday. “Now, I am afraid of what is going to happen next.”

The day in Egypt brought scenes that juxtaposed a more familiar capital with a country forever changed by Mr. Mubarak’s fall. Hundreds of policemen, belonging to one of the most loathed institutions in Egypt, rallied in Cairo to demand better pay and treatment. Traffic returned to Tahrir Square, a symbol of the revolution, navigating through lingering protesters and festive sightseers, many of whom lingered by the pictures of dead protesters that hung from clotheslines at one end of the square.

Youthful volunteers swept streets, painted fences and curbs, washed away graffiti that read, “Down with Mubarak,” and planted bushes in a square many want to turn into a memorial for one of the most stunning uprisings in Arab history. Soldiers drove a truck mounted with speakers that blared, “Egypt is my beloved.”

“Egypt is my blood,” said Oummia Ali, a flight attendant who skipped work to paint the square’s railing green. “I want to build our country again.”

As she spoke, a boisterous crowd marched down the street away from Tahrir Square, “Liberation” in Arabic and named for the fall of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952. “Let’s go home,” they chanted, “we got our rights.” Though hundreds, perhaps more, vowed to stay until more reforms were enacted, tents were dismantled, banners taken down and trucks piled with blankets that kept protesters warm over the 18 days of demonstrations that began Jan. 25, the date organizers have given to their revolution.

The military’s statement was the clearest elaboration yet of its plans for Egypt, as the country’s opposition forces, from the Muslim Brotherhood to labor unions, seek to build on the momentum of the protests and create a democratic system with few parallels in the Arab world.

The moves to suspend the Constitution and to dissolve Parliament, chosen in an election deemed a sham even by Mr. Mubarak’s standards, were expected. The statement declared that the supreme command would issue laws in the transitional period before elections and that Egypt’s defense minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, would represent the country, in a sign that the 75-year-old loyalist of Mr. Mubarak’s had emerged to the forefront. Protesters — and some classified American diplomatic cables — have dismissed him as a “poodle” of Mr. Mubarak’s. But some senior American officers say he is a shrewd operator who played a significant role in managing Mr. Mubarak’s nonviolent ouster.

The military’s communiqué was welcomed by opposition leaders as offering a specific timetable for transition to civil rule. Ayman Nour, a longtime opponent of Mr. Mubarak’s, called it a victory for the revolution, while youthful leaders, some of whom met in downtown Cairo on Sunday night to chart a path forward in negotiations with the military, described it as a concrete step.