Speaker of dissolved Egyptian parliament calls for it to meet

Move is the latest to raise tensions between ruling Islamist party and powerful military

CAIRO (AP) — The speaker of Egypt’s Islamist-dominated dissolved parliament has called for the legislature to meet this week, raising tensions with the powerful military which backed a court ruling to dissolve it.

Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency said Monday that speaker Saad el-Katatni, himself an Islamist, has called for parliament to meet Tuesday.

El-Katatni’s decision comes a day after Islamist President Mohammed Morsi recalled the legislature in defiance of last month’s ruling by the country’s highest court to dissolve it. The then-ruling military backed the Supreme Constitutional Court’s verdict with a decree to disband the chamber.

The dispute threatens to plunge the country into a new bout of instability, perhaps violence, 17 months after the ouster of longtime authoritarian ruler Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising.