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发帖数: 4825 | 1 Mubarak Won't Run in Next Elections
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870344590457611739
CAIRO—Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he will step down from power
after his term expires this fall, for the first time setting a date to end
his three decades of authoritarian rule.
The embattled leader, in a five-minute speech on state television, said he
had shouldered many responsibilities for Egypt but needed to hand over power
to ensure the stability of the country.
"I've spent enough time serving Egypt," Mr. Mubarak said.
President Obama conveyed a message to Egyptian President Mubarak urging the
embattled leader to announce he will not run for re-election. Jerry Seib
looks at how much influence the U.S. had in Mubarak's decision to step down
later this year.
The acknowledgment after eight days of swelling protests demanding his
ouster was a remarkable turnabout for a president who clung to power so
tenaciously that he had never even named a vice president until his hand was
forced late last week.
The move wasn't enough to placate protesters, however, who have consistently
demanded that he step down immediately. Angry shouts rose from
demonstrators massed in central Cairo's Tahrir Square after the speech.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which is working with a coalition of opposition
groups, was quick to say Mr. Mubarak's pledge to step down months from now
wasn't enough and that the protests will continue.
"No one is satisfied," said Mohammed Morsey, a spokesman for the group. "He
and his system have already failed, and the people do not want him to
continue with his colleagues. He has to leave."
Photos: Tuesday Protests
View Slideshow
[SB10001424052748703445904576117543531946816]
Khalil Hamra/Associated Press
The crowd gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo Tuesday.
Regional Upheaval
View Interactive
A succession of rallies and demonstrations, in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and
Algeria have been inspired directly by the popular outpouring of anger that
toppled Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. See how these uprising
progressed.
Mr. Mubarak's announcement makes him the second victim of an unprecedented
wave of protest in the Arab World that toppled Tunisian President Zine al-
Abidine Ben Ali last month and has leaders in Jordan, Syria, Algeria and
Yemen scrambling to shore up their positions.
Unlike Mr. Ben Ali, however, Mr. Mubarak indicated he will not flee Egypt,
saying he would die in the country.
Mr Mubarak was also increased international pressure. Earlier Tuesday, U.S.
President Barack Obama conveyed a message to Mr. Mubarak asking him to
decline to run in the next election, an Obama administration official said,
as the U.S. government began more publicly working toward a resolution of
the crisis in the world's largest Arab nation.
The message appears to have been delivered through Frank Wisner, a former
ambassador to Egypt, who was tapped Monday by the U.S. State Department to
engage the Egyptian government, specifically because of his close relations
with Mr. Mubarak. The current U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Margaret Scobey,
spoke with former International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei
, who has emerged as the central figure of the Egyptian opposition,
administration officials said.
Egypt's Strongman
View Interactive
Take a look back at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's career.
In Tuesday's phone conversations, the Americans intended to clarify what
President Obama meant by "an orderly transition to democracy," and to make
clear that Washington does not believe Mr. Mubarak has come close to
satisfying that demand, a White House official said.
A person familiar with the matter said the American envoy didn't
expressively demand that Mr. Mubarak step down, but suggested that a move to
seek re-election was in the best interest of his country: A smooth
transition could thwart the threat posed by Islamist parties or general
chaos in the country.
Ms. Scobey, meanwhile, encouraged Mr. ElBaradei to "engage in a meaningful
dialogue" with the Egyptian government, as pressure mounts on Mr. Mubarak to
reform the country's constitution and move quickly toward free and fair
elections, administration officials said.
It has become clear in recent days the Obama administration believes that
the only way to begin a transition to a new government in Cairo would be for
Mr. Mubarak to announce he isn't running in elections slated for September,
or to step down immediately. Such a scenario was discussed among the U.S.
and its allies Monday.
A U.S. official said it was unclear whether an agreement for Mr. Mubarak to
step down in September would be enough to satisfy street protesters who have
demanded his immediate departure.
Estimates of the crowd in Tahrir Square Tuesday varied, with the Associated
Press reporting that more than a quarter of a million people were in the
square to demand an end to Mr. Mubarak's regime. Other estimates included
one on Al-Jazeera's website of one million.
"It may not be enough," said the official, citing the difficulty of
determining how to gauge the response of the opposition.
Some Western diplomats have started to question the role of Mr. ElBaradei,
the 68-year-old Nobel Peace laureate behind whom the opposition coalesced
last week.
A senior Western diplomat said Mr. ElBaradei has so far "failed in his
attempts" to exert control over the opposition, which includes the powerful
Muslim Brotherhood.
Another Western official said "there's a lot of unhappiness with his
hijacking the movement" within the groups that make up the opposition.
The U.S. State Department also on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of all
nonemergency U.S. government personnel and dependents from Cairo, as
uncertainty about conditions in the Egyptian capital deepened, according to
a State Department representative.
Tuesday's protest was far more peaceful than the fiery clashes last week.
In contrast to earlier protests made up mainly of young men, the crowd
Tuesday in Tahrir Square featured a large number of women. Whole families
were also in attendance, as was Egypt's upper crust.
WSJ's Margaret Coker reports from Cairo on the continued unrest in Egypt and
pressure on president Hosni Mubarak to step down. Also, Guy Chazan reports
all eyes are on the Suez Canal and how it might be impacted by the spreading
violence.
WSJ's Guy Chazan reports oil markets are nervously keeping an eye on the
unrest in Egypt and how it might affect the Suez Canal and Sumed pileline,
which combined carry upwards of 3 million barrels of oil a day.
The army declared ahead of Tuesday's gathering that it wouldn't use force
against protesters.
People entered the square in relatively orderly fashion via checkpoints set
up by soldiers, who checked ID cards and patted people down for weapons.
Space was tight across the immense square. Despite calls for a million-
person march to the Presidential Palace some 10 kilometers away, there was
no apparent move to leave.
As of sunset, Mr. ElBaradei, had yet to appear in the square.
The crowd displayed a swelling sense of nationalism, amplified by groups of
volunteers offering water and snacks to the demonstrators. People laughed
and shared food as a military helicopter circled overhead.
Mr. Mubarak, seeking to salvage his 30-year rule, late Monday made his first
offer to discuss reforms with opposition groups. A 10-person steering
committee of opposition parties met for two hours Tuesday morning and made a
unified announcement that they wouldn't negotiate as long as Mr. Mubarak
remains in office.
Mr. ElBaradei, who leads the steering committee, didn't attend the meeting.
He couldn't immediately be reached to comment.
The U.S. government evacuated 350 American citizens on Tuesday, using
aircraft chartered primarily from U.S. commercial airlines, according to a U
.S. State Department official. To date, the government has received a total
of 2,600 requests from Americans in Cairo for assistance in leaving. The U.S
. government began evacuating American citizens on Monday, with nine
chartered flights transporting about 1,200 Americans out of Cairo, according
to the official. The flights included a U.S. military aircraft, a Canadian
commercial plane, and seven American airliners.
"If we get a surge in requests, we're going to continue to move people out
as quickly and as safely as possible," said Erin Pelton, the State
Department spokeswoman.
Elsewhere in the capital, people said supplies of basic commodities such as
sugar, rice, salt, pasta, bread and flour were running short. Supermarkets
were posting signs saying such items are out of stock. Local bread ovens
first raised prices to one Egyptian pound per loaf (usually its 10 or 15
piasters), and now they are running out of flour.
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cut its rating for Egypt's foreign debt and
said it could lower it further. The ratings firm said it expects violent
demonstrations to persist despite the move by Mr. Mubarak to appoint a vice
president. The move followed a similar decision by Moody's Investors Service
Monday. Both firms rate Egypt two steps below investment grade.
Participants in a private meeting Monday at the White House said a long
discussion of Mr. Mubarak's future left them with the understanding that the
White House sees no scenario in which Mr. Mubarak remains in power for long
. White House officials said they made no explicit predictions about Mr.
Mubarak's future.
In Egypt, a committee from the coalition of opposition parties met Monday to
discuss their strategy in anticipation of Mr. Mubarak's ouster. People
briefed on the meeting said the focus was to hammer out a negotiating
strategy with the army and newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman, the
longtime intelligence chief who constitutionally would take over if Mr.
Mubarak left office. Protest organizers said the opposition would make no
concessions until Mr. Mubarak leaves office. Mr. Mubarak's offer to
negotiate a package of political and constitutional overhauls was delivered
by Mr. Suleiman over state television around midnight.
Journal Community
Military commanders haven't yet withdrawn support for Mr. Mubarak, but the
army boosted demonstrators Monday when state television said the military "
understands the legitimacy of the people's demands."
The Interior Ministry hasn't revised its official death toll since Saturday,
when it said 78 people had died in clashes with police—a number activists
said should have been far higher.
The last working Internet provider in the country, the Noor group, was cut
off late Monday, according to Renesys Corp., an Internet monitoring firm.
Google Inc. said Monday it launched a new service for people in Egypt to
send Twitter messages without requiring an Internet connection. It said the
service lets people dial one of three international telephone numbers and
leave a voicemail. The service then tweets a link to each recorded message.
—Summer Said in Cairo, Christopher Rhoads in New York and Adam Entous and
Julian E. Barnes in Washington contributed to this article.
Write to Margaret Coker at m************[email protected] and Jonathan Weisman at
j**************[email protected] | v**e
发帖数: 8422 | 2 没看内容, 不过标题是废话
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【在 u***r 的大作中提到】
: Mubarak Won't Run in Next Elections
: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870344590457611739
: CAIRO—Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he will step down from power
: after his term expires this fall, for the first time setting a date to end
: his three decades of authoritarian rule.
: The embattled leader, in a five-minute speech on state television, said he
: had shouldered many responsibilities for Egypt but needed to hand over power
: to ensure the stability of the country.
: "I've spent enough time serving Egypt," Mr. Mubarak said.
: President Obama conveyed a message to Egyptian President Mubarak urging the
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