Barack Obama sends Mubarak his strongest message yet: it's time to go
The Guardian, Saturday 5 February 2011
A prayer for the future: Thousands of Egyptians gathered to pray together in Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday afternoon. With government thugs absent, events were largely trouble-free. Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
Barack Obama yesterday tried to nudge Hosni Mubarak towards the exit, sending his strongest message yet to the Egyptian president that it was time for him to quit.
But Mubarak, even after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt to call on him to go, remained defiant and showed little sign of preparing to depart.
Mubarak earlier this week promised to leave in the autumn but that has failed to satisfy the protesters who want him to go immediately.
Obama, taking questions from the media for the first time since the crisis began, used a White House press conference to drop a series of heavy hints that the US regarded Mubarak as having outlived his usefulness and that it would be better if he went.
"In light of what's happened the last two weeks, going back to the old ways is not going to work," Obama said. "Suppression is not going to work. Engaging in violence is not going to work."
He added that work on an orderly succession had to begin "right now", had to be meaningful and broad-based, which meant involving opposition groups.
The US president stopped short of calling unambiguously for Mubarak to stand down immediately but his comments went further in support of the protesters than his brief statement on Tuesday.
He condemned the attacks on journalists, human rights activists and protesters and said he held the Egyptian government responsible for their safety.
He appealed to Mubarak to make the right choice with regard to his departure and to think about his legacy. "I believe that President Mubarak cares about his country," Obama said. "He is proud, but he is also a patriot."
Obama said Mubarak had made the "psychological breakthrough" by announcing he'd stand down in the autumn, seemingly suggesting that the president should not make a fuss about a few more months.
US officials confirmed that while Washington publicly does not want to be seen to be interfering in Egyptian domestic affairs, it is engaged with senior Egyptian officers and politicians about life after Mubarak, assuming he leaves soon.
The EU also kept up pressure on Egypt's government for a swift, orderly and peaceful transition today on a day that saw hundreds of thousands rally on the streets.
It is possible that after such a huge turnout produced no tangible effect at home or abroad the protests will become harder to sustain – unless the fragmented opposition formulates more detailed demands.
Diplomatic sources signalled that if Mubarak was not going to leave and thus deprive the protest movement of a "symbolic victory," it might still be possible to pursue a dialogue with the government. "There are people digging in around Mubarak but others who are edging in the right direction," a western official said.
European leaders called for an immediate transition to a "broad-based" government, but like the US declined to call explicitly for Mubarak's resignation.
An EU summit in Brussels wrestled over a response to the crisis, with David Cameron urging more robust action in line with Washington while leaders such as Silvio Berlusconi praised Mubarak, and suggested he should continue in office.
The UN secretary-general, Ban ki-Moon, demanded new elections be held as soon as possible, and not in September.
US officials are proposing that a transitional government fronted by the military invite members from a range of opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to begin work to open up the electoral system in an effort to bring about free and fair elections. "We have discussed with the Egyptians a variety of different ways to move that process forward, but all of those decisions must be made by the Egyptian people," said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor.
But the limits of US pressure were graphically illustrated by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, when he warned in an ABC interview against any move to reduce the $1.3bn (£800m) in annual US aid to Egypt – apparently in response to calls that the funding be cut if the governmental transition in Egypt does not happen soon.
"There is a lot of uncertainty out there and I would just caution against doing anything until we really understand what's going on," Mullen said. "I recognise that ($1.3bn) certainly is a significant investment, but it's an investment that has paid off for a long, long time."
The US and Egyptian military are closely intertwined through extensive joint training and exercises in support of US interests in the Middle East.
The US would suspend aid immediately if the Egyptian army was to crack down on peaceful protesters in the way the Iranian Revolutionary Guard did in 2009 and the Chinese military did in 1989.
Mullen, defence secretary Robert Gates and other senior Pentagon figures have been in regular contact with their Egyptian counterparts all week.
The largely trouble-free rally in Cairo suggested the government had acted smartly to rein in the pro-Mubarak demonstrators who caused mayhem and attracted international condemnation this week. The defence minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, paid a very public visit to Tahrir Square and talked to protesters and military commanders — conveying the message that Egypt's most powerful institution was sanctioning the rally.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/05/egypt-mubarak-protests-obama
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