Egypt crisis: rushed constitution published Mohamed Morsi claims that he has public backing for his new powers and that protests in Tahrir Square "will pass." In a defiant and rambling interview with Time magazine he said he had no regrets about granting himself sweeping new powers and insisted that the measures were temporary until a new constitution was agreed. I think more than 80, around 90% of the people in Egypt are - according to these opinion measures - they are with what I have done ... I'm not worried. I'm concerned. And I'm sure Egyptians will pass through this. He said protests in Cairo were a "positive sign" but not when they turned violent. "Rocking the boat is not to the benefit of anyone," he said. Ten days of clashes in Cairo were the result of a "misunderstanding from a few" which started before he issued his controversial decree, he said. "But it's OK it will pass," Morsi told Time. He expressed hope that a new constitution would be approved within two months. When we have a constitution, what I have issued will stop immediately ... we'll have a parliament, we'll have elections. So It's two months," he said. Morsi also laughed-off accusations that he has become a modern day Pharaoh. He claimed he went to prison defending the judiciary and that he understood the principles of the separation of powers. The interview conducted in Arabic, and at times awkward English, covered a range of subjects including his time as an engineering student in the US and his "helpful" relationship with Barack Obama. But the subject which has received the most attention is Morsi's puzzling admiration for the film Planet of the Apes. I remember a movie. Which one? Planet of the Apes. The old version, not the new one. There is new one. Which is different. Not so good. It's not expressing the reality as it was the first one. But at the end, I still remember, this is the conclusion: When the big monkey, he was head of the supreme court I think - in the movie! - and there was a big scientist working for him, cleaning things, has been chained there. And it was the planet of the apes after the destructive act of a big war, and atomic bombs and whatever in the movie. And the scientists was asking him to do something, this was 30 years ago: "Don't forget you are a monkey." He tells him, "don't ask me about this dirty work,." What did the big ape, the monkey say? He said, "you're human, you did it [to] yourself. That's the conclusion. Can we do something better for ourselves? I saw it 30 years ago. The New York Times' Robert Mackey attempts an explanation: While convoluted, the simplest reading of the president's musings is that they had something to do with the moral of the film's end, in which the orangutan known as Dr Zaius, who held the high office of chief defender of the faith, explained to the human astronaut Taylor that mankind had proved unfit to rule the earth and destroyed itself through nuclear warfare. Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi made it to cover of Time magazine after his rambling and defiant interview.