Obama challenges Mubarak to consider his legacy
Saturday, 05 February 2011
The Egyptian opposition's "day of departure" for Hosni Mubarak ended at midnight Friday with the embattled president refusing to transfer power amid a rising tide of international calls for him to stand down.
Mubarak defied huge protests in central Cairo and in Alexandria aimed at forcing his ouster as U.S. President Barack Obama said talks have begun on a transition in Egypt and EU leaders said it was time for change.
Mubarak himself has said he would like to quit but feared that chaos would ensue.
I do not think he will leave. I think he will stay until the end of August 
On Thursday, ABC television's Christiane Amanpour said that in an interview with Mubarak, he blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the violence of recent days.
Mubarak was "fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot, he says, for fear that the country would sink into chaos," Amanpour said.
Mubarak's onetime foreign minister and a future possible presidential candidate, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, said on Friday he doubted his former boss would leave any time soon.
"I do not think he will leave. I think he will stay until the end of August," Moussa told France's Europe 1 radio before himself later going to Tahrir Square in what his office called a "calming gesture."
At Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square epicenter of anti-Mubarak protests, more than 10,000 people stayed behind in a festive atmosphere after nightfall, many preparing to camp under canvas.
On the Muslim day of prayers and rest, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life earlier filled the square which has seen 11 straight days of protests that have shaken the pillars of Mubarak's three-decade rule.
A pro-government rally in the upscale Mohandeseen neighborhood of the capital was attended by just dozens of people.
A clear hint
The key question he should be asking himself is, 'how do I leave a legacy behind in which Egypt is able to get through this transformative period? Obama Friday delivered a clear hint that Mubarak should step down now, saying the proud "patriot" should listen to his people and make the "right decision."
Obama did not explicitly call on Mubarak to resign, but said the Arab strongman had already made the psychological leap of realizing his rule was ebbing, and now should reconsider his position amid a mass uprising.
"I believe that President Mubarak cares about his country. He is proud, but he is also a patriot," Obama said.
"What I've suggested to him is, is that he needs to consult with those who are around him in his government.
"He needs to listen to what is being voiced by the Egyptian people, and make a judgment about a pathway forward that is orderly, but that is meaningful and serious."
Obama did not explicitly say Mubarak should leave power immediately, with the White House highly sensitive to perceptions that it is engineering Egypt's political future in a region that pulsates with anti-American feeling.
But his choice of words made clear that Washington's call for an immediate political transition did not include its wily ally of three decades, who has been a fulcrum of U.S. Middle East policy.
"The key question he should be asking himself is, 'how do I leave a legacy behind in which Egypt is able to get through this transformative period?'" Obama said.
Amid reports that Washington was working on a number of scenarios with key players in Cairo that would result in Mubarak's departure, Obama stressed Egyptians must decide their future themselves.
The New York Times reported that Washington has been pushing proposals for Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's veteran intelligence chief and now vice president, to head a transitional government.
But Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq ruled out the possibility that Mubarak would transfer power to Suleiman.
EU leaders were more forthright in their call for Mubarak to step aside.
At a summit in Brussels, the European Union's 27 leaders said Egypt's "transition process must start now" and condemned this week's violence, while issuing a veiled threat of suspending aid.
Iran calls for Islamic state
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei fanned Western concerns about the turmoil in their key ally Egypt, calling on its people to rise up and create an Islamic state.
The White House accused Iran of hypocrisy because of its own suppression of protests over the June 2009 re-election of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
Egyptian Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi -- regarded by Washington as a key plank of any post-Mubarak administration -- visited Tahrir Square to appeal to demonstrators to end their protest in the light of Mubarak's pledge not to seek re-election in September.
He urged opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition.
Shafiq reiterated late on Friday that the anti-regime protesters would not be removed by force.
And a curfew imposed in Cairo and two other cities but widely ignored was shortened by four hours to between 7:00 pm (1700 GMT) and 6:00 am, state television said.
Egyptian journalist Ahmed Mohammed Mahmud died on Friday of gunshot wounds sustained during clashes between Mubarak supporters and anti-government protesters, state-owned Al-Ahram daily said.
It said he had been shot by sniper fire while taking pictures from his flat near Tahrir Square.
The government on Friday said that widespread charges of "an official policy against the international media were false" and that any attacks on reporters were "unacceptable."
Finance minister apologizes
I inquired and I was told that there is zero tolerance, zero tolerance of this government on attacks against foreigners, let alone journalists whom we need to have them on our side, to watch this situation unfold and convey a much better image to the outside world Egypt's Finance Minister Samir Radwan apologized Friday for any instance of journalists or Egyptian protestors that have been subject to "harsh treatment" at the hands of government forces, in an interview with CNN.
"I would apologize to any journalist or any foreigner or any Egyptian for that matter that has been subjected to this harsh treatment," the newly appointed minister told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
"I inquired and I was told that there is zero tolerance, zero tolerance of this government on attacks against foreigners, let alone journalists whom we need to have them on our side, to watch this situation unfold and convey a much better image to the outside world," he said.
Radwan acknowledge the protestors that have mounted massive protests across Egypt in recent days had "fair demands."
"They are talking about jobs. They are talking about corruption. They are talking about, you know, the freedom and so on... Now the fact that there are other political agenda that interfered with the situation and unfortunately on Wednesday the situation turned a bit nasty."
Clashes left at least eight people dead and more than 800 hurt on Wednesday and Thursday. According to U.N. estimates, more than 300 people have been killed since the protests began.
Mideast Quartet talks
If, the day after elections, you get an extremist religious dictatorship, what are these democratic elections worth? Egypt loomed large over talks of the Middle East Quartet in Germany on Saturday, with fears that a change of regime in Cairo could throw into turmoil an already deeply troubled peace process.
"One of our big partners did not want the Quartet to meet at this stage, saying maybe it's not the moment to be discussing the peace process when the whole region is undergoing dramatic changes," a European diplomat said.
"And our analysis is just the opposite. Because this is happening, the Quartet needs to meet, and the Quartet needs to give a strong signal that the peace process is alive."
The meeting on Saturday afternoon in Munich brings together U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.N. head Ban Ki-moon.
The Palestinians walked out of peace talks late last year after Israel refused to renew a temporary ban on building settlements in the West Bank -- on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority meanwhile has been defensive since Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera started releasing thousands of documents purported to show huge concessions offered to Israel behind closed doors.
But the tumultuous events in Egypt threaten to dwarf such issues if, as many in Israel and elsewhere fear, revolts convulsing Egypt end up replacing President Hosni Mubarak's regime with a government hostile to the Jewish state.
A poll published on Thursday indicated that 59 percent of Israelis predicted an Islamic regime in a post-Mubarak Egypt while only 21 percent foresaw a secular democratic government.
"If, the day after elections, you get an extremist religious dictatorship, what are these democratic elections worth?" Israeli President Shimon Peres said.
After four wars, Egypt signed a peace accord with its neighbor in 1979, and since coming to power in 1981 Mubarak played a key role mediating between Israel and the rest of the Arab world, and the Palestinians in particular.
For Shaul Mofaz, chairman of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee and former head of the armed forces, uncertainty in Egypt adds to the urgent need for accommodation with the Palestinians.
"Because of the strategic change in our region, we have to move forward with the Palestinians," he said. Failure to do so, he said, could lead to an Israel that was "one state for two peoples, close to a new war with its neighbors."
The European diplomat warned not to expect any statement "of substance on specific issues" from the Quartet meeting, with the likely outcome an agreement to meet again in four to five weeks.
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