CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's main opposition coalition will not join a national dialogue on Monday called by President Mohamed Mursi because the proposal was not genuine and the group will only attend future talks if a list of conditions are met, members said. 
 
 Mursi invited his allies and rivals to talks at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday to try to resolve a political crisis and end violence on the streets that erupted during anti-government protests. Five days of unrest has led to 50 deaths. 
 
 The National Salvation Front, which rejected a similar call for dialogue last year during another spasm of unrest, saw the Islamist leader's call as "cosmetic and not substantive", said leading member of the coalition Mohamed ElBaradei. 
 
 "We will not go to the dialogue today," ElBaradei told a news conference after the Front's members met in Cairo to discuss the invitation. 
 
 "We will send a message to the Egyptian people and the president of the republic about what we think are the essentials for dialogue. If he agrees to them, we are ready for dialogue." 
 
 The coalition's conditions included a demand that Mursi accept responsibility for the bloodshed and agree to form a government of national salvation, echoing previously unmet demands by the opposition. 
 
 "We have accepted dialogue (in the past) and went to the president in his office and spoke to him," said leftist firebrand politician Hamdeen Sabahy. "We did not refuse dialogue. But the result was he issued an oppressive decree." 
 
 Opposition politicians were enraged late last year when Mursi issued a decree awarding himself extra powers that the president's allies said were essential to help push Egypt's transition forward. Rivals saw it as a blatant power grab. 
 
 Opposition politicians were particularly angered that they had not been given any indication of Mursi's plans for such a sweeping move in their individual talks with him shortly before the decree was issued. 
 
 After that decree, Mursi fast-tracked an Islamist-tinged constitution through a referendum, further enraging his opponents who accused him of reneging on his pledged to be a president for all Egyptians. 
 
 (Reporting by Shaimaa Fayed and Omar Fahmy; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alison Williams) ||||| 8.46am GMT 
 
 Welcome to Middle East Live. 
 
 Here's a roundup of the latest developments: 
 
 Egypt 
 
 • President Mohamed Morsi has announced a state of emergency in three cities along Egypt's Suez Canal, following four days of civil unrest that have left at least 40 dead and over 500 injured. Port Said, Suez, and Ismailiya – the cities most affected by the violence – will be subject to a 30-day curfew lasting from 9pm to 6am every night, Morsi said in a surprise televised speech. Speaking to the Guardian, a spokesman for the opposition expressed frustration at the announcement, blaming the president's policies and inaction for the violence, and arguing that the state of emergency was too little, too late. 
 
 • Morsi also invited his opponents for a national dialogue meeting on Monday aimed at quelling the unrest. His officer said it was inviting leading politicians such as former presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabahy and Amr Moussa. 
 
 • The opposition has threatened to back further protests unless Morsi meets five new demands including reforms to the constitution and the formation of a new salvation government, Ahram Online reports. The National Salvation Front stressed that if their “legitimate” demands were not met in the coming days, the front would call on Egyptians to peacefully protest next Friday to topple the “invalid” constitution and to readopt temporarily the 1971 constitution. 
 
 • Has Egypt become ungovernable? asks the latest Arabist podcast. Journalist Ursula Lindsey says there is now no respect for the country's institutions, including the courts, as many turn to violence to influence decisions. 
 
 • At least 25 women have been sexually assaulted during the recent unrest in Cairo's Tahrir Square, according to local women's rights campaigners. In a typical attack, crowds of men quickly surround isolated women, groping them and attempting to remove their clothes. Some women have been stripped naked and one was raped, the campaigners said. 
 
 Syria 
 
 • Barack Obama has defended his decision not to intervene in Syria by suggesting that to do so would provoke further violence. Speaking to New Republic magazine, the US president said: "In a situation like Syria, I have to ask: can we make a difference in that situation? Could it trigger even worse violence or the use of chemical weapons? What offers the best prospect of a stable post-Assad regime? And how do I weigh tens of thousands who've been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo?" In a separate interview with CBS he added: "We do nobody a service when we leap before we look, where we ... take on things without having thought through all the consequences of it ... sometimes that we don't just shoot from the hip." 
 
 • The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has said Bashar al-Assad's chances of retaining power in Syria are getting "smaller and smaller" every day, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN. "I think that with every day, every week and every month the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller," Medvedev was quoted as saying. 
 
 Israel and the Palestinian territories 
 
 • At least five unarmed young Palestinians, including a 21-year-old woman, have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers in 13 days since the start of the year, prompting mounting concern about the unwarranted use of live fire. A sixth was killed on his 17th birthday last month, and a seventh death this month is disputed by the Israeli military. The commander of the Israeli Defence Forces in the West Bank, Brigadier-General Hagai Mordechai, has ordered all commanders to reiterate to all soldiers the rules of engagement, a military spokesman told the Guardian. 
 
 Iran 
 
 • Security officials have raided at least four newspapers and arrested several journalists in what appears to be concerted action aimed at intimidating the media in advance of the presidential elections in June. Sources in Tehran said reformist newspapers Etemaad, Shargh, Bahar and Arman were targeted by a group of plainclothes officials who ransacked offices, filmed staff, confiscated documents and held several journalists. ||||| PORT SAID, Egypt — The police fired indiscriminately into the streets outside their besieged station, a group of protesters arrived with a crate of gasoline bombs, and others cheered a masked man on a motorcycle who arrived with a Kalashnikov. 
 
 The growing chaos along the vital canal zone showed little sign of abating on Monday as President Mohamed Morsi called out the army to try to regain control of three cities along the Suez Canal whose growing lawlessness is testing the integrity of the Egyptian state. 
 
 In Port Said, street battles reached a bloody new peak with a death toll over three days of at least 45, with at least five more protesters killed by bullet wounds, hospital officials said. 
 
 President Morsi had already declared a monthlong state of emergency here and in the other canal towns of Suez and Ismailia, applying a law that virtually eliminates due process protections against abuse by the police. Angry crowds burned tires and hurled rocks at the police. And the police, with little training and less credibility, hunkered down behind barrages of tear gas, birdshot and occasional bullets. ||||| Police have fired tear-gas at protesters in downtown Cairo, just hours after President Mohamed Morsi declared a state of emegency and a curfew in three Suez Canal cities. 
 
 Monday was the fifth consecutive day of street violence in Egypt. There were reports that one person was killed; he was not taking part in the protests, but was hit by a stray gunshot. 
 
 Protests began last week to mark the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak; nearly 50 people have been killed so far. 
 
 The cabinet, meanwhile, approved a draft law which would allow Morsi to deploy the army on the streets to "participate with the police in preserving security and protecting vital establishments." The law still must be ratified by the upper house of parliament; it would last until after the next legislative elections, tentatively scheduled for April. 
 
 Morsi delivered a televised address on Sunday night and announced the emergency measures in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. A curfew will take effect on Monday from 9:00pm local time (19:00 GMT) to 6:00am (04:00 GMT); he warned that more action would be taken to stem the violence. 
 
 "I have said I am against any emergency measures but I have said that if I must stop bloodshed and protect the people then I will act," he said. 
 
 He also called for dialogue with leading politicians starting on Monday to resolve the situation. 
 
 Port Said deaths 
 
 Seven people were shot dead and hundreds were injured in Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of at least 30 people killed during clashes in the city on the previous day. 
 
 "Down, down Morsi, down down the regime that killed and tortured us!" people in Port Said chanted as the coffins of those killed on Saturday were carried through the streets. 
 
 In Port Said, Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh said military helicopters that had been overhead during the funeral could also be heard during Morsi's speech. 
 
 "I dont see how these decisions will instil any confidence in the people," Rageh said, referring to the president's decision to impose a state of emergency. 
 
 She said that immediate reaction in Port Said was one of mockery and scepticism with many asking why the three canal cities had been singled out. 
 
 "The people [in Port Said] feel that there was a complete state of collapse especially after riots today, particularly with tear gas being fired into the funerals," she said. 
 
 Protesters defiant 
 
 Several hundred people protested in Ismailia, Suez and Port Said after the announcement. 
 
 Activists in the three cities pledged to defy the curfew in protest at the decision. 
 
 On Sunday night, Morsi’s office issued a statement inviting political supporters and opponents for a national dialogue on Monday at 6:00pm (16:00 GMT) at the presidential palace in Cairo. 
 
 The spokesman for Egypt's main opposition coalition said after Morsi's speech that the move was "expected" and said he wanted more details about an invitation for dialogue with top politicians. 
 
 "Of course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground which is his own policies," Dawoud told the Reuters news agency. 
 
 "His call to implement emergency law was an expected move given what is going on, namely thuggery and criminal actions." 
 
 Hamdeen Sabbahi, a leftist politician and opposition leader, said that he would not attend any negotiations "unless the bloodshed stops and the people's demands are met". 
 
 Mohamed ElBaradei, a leader of the NSF, said in a statement on Twitter that the dialogue was "a waste of time". 
 
 Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said a state of emergency reintroduced laws that gave police sweeping powers of arrest "purely because [people] look suspicious". 
 
 "It is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of Interior that it ends up causing more abuse which in turn causes more anger."
– Despite President Mohamed Morsi declaring a state of emergency yesterday, protests are raging in Cairo and other parts of Egypt for a fifth consecutive day today, the New York Times reports. Marchers in Port Said, one of three provinces where Morsi declared a curfew, said they no longer recognize his authority and called on everyone to ignore the curfew. Opposition groups have called for more protests throughout Egypt today to mark the two-year anniversary of the "Day of Rage," a brutal day of clashes during the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Protests began last week to mark the two-year anniversary of the uprising, then grew over the weekend after 21 people involved in a soccer riot were sentenced to death. In addition to the state of emergency, one of the most hated Mubarak-era laws still in effect, al-Jazeera reports that Egypt's Cabinet has given the army the right to arrest civilians and act alongside police; the upper house of parliament must still ratify the draft law. Morsi has invited opposition leaders to a "national dialogue" tonight, and initial reports indicated they would participate. But now the Guardian reports that the National Salvation Front, the country's opposition coalition, has rejected the plan. Leading member Mohamed ElBaradei called Morsi's offer "cosmetic and not substantive," Reuters reports. The coalition has given a list of conditions Morsi must meet before they will enter into talks.