US condemns Egypt violence as attempt to manage political crisis fails

White House repeats Barack Obama’s call for Mubarak to begin sharing power but falls short of public demand for resignation The White House condemned the violence in Cairo as “outrageous and deplorable” as it held crisis meetings over the collapse of its attempts to manage the transition in the face of Hosni Mubarak’s defiance. The administration was trying to decide whether to publicly call for Mubarak’s immediate resignation, after Barack Obama was accused of badly misjudging the popular mood by seeming to accept the Egyptian president will remain in power during the transition. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, condemned the unleashing of what, it appeared he presumed, were state-sponsored attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators, in the face of a direct call from Obama that there should be no violence. “If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately,” he said. The White House repeated the US president’s call for Mubarak to immediately begin sharing power but again fell short of a public demand for immediate resignation. “The time for a transition has come and that time is now,” said Gibbs. “The Egyptian people need to see change. We know that that meaningful transition must include opposition voices and parties being involved in this process as we move toward free and fair elections.” Although Obama in his speech on Tuesday demanded the transition begin immediately, he did not directly challenge Mubarak’s claim to remain in power until elections and oversee the change. However, White House officials said that while Obama was ambiguous in public about the timing of Mubarak’s departure, he was more direct in a conversation with the Egyptian president in a phone call on Tuesday night, telling him he needed to move towards an earlier departure. However, the violence may force the White House’s hand. Steve Clemons, of the New America Foundation thinktank who has been consulted by the White House on the Egypt crisis, said that Obama views the assault on the demonstrators in Cairo as a breach in relations with Mubarak. “The administration sees the social contract it thought that it had with Mubarak behind the scenes being violated,” he said. “It’s a violation of what Obama has been most strongly calling for. This raises the stakes on whether Obama escalates his calls, and whether he takes some of the things he’s been saying privately to Mubarak in to a public forum. I don’t think the president has any other options now.” Clemons said that he is pressing the White House to demand Mubarak resign immediately, because it is the only solution acceptable to the mass of Egyptians, but added that he believes the administration is still hesitant to do so. The US is also not in a rush to get to elections, as the White House finally seeks to engage with the Muslim Brotherhood while trying to give time for secular political parties to establish themselves and challenge the Islamist group at the ballot box. American analysts were united yesterday in saying that Obama had taken a risk in supporting a transition to democracy, given that Mubarak has so long been a pillar of US foreign policy. Robert Satloff, of the Washington Institute and author of the Army and Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt, also saw Obama as taking a risk but praised him for the “breathtaking change” in policy towards Egypt within a week, from backing him to calling on him to go. “Last night’s statement was nothing if not bold,” Satloff said. The imagery of Mubarak saying he would stay on for eight more months and Obama an hour later talking about transition “now” would have a powerful impact in the Middle East, Satloff said. US foreign policy United States Barack Obama Egypt Chris McGreal Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 2, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry