On Saturday morning the Obama Administration said Mubarak must stay.
On Saturday evening the Obama Administration said Mubarak should step aside.
On Sunday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mubarak must stay in power.
This is crazy… Do these people have any idea what they’re doing?
News Time Africa reported:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged Sunday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may need to stay on longer than many of his opponents want in order to ensure elections succeed. Under pressure from mass protests, Mubarak has pledged to step down in time for September polls but many protesters demand his immediate departure and US news reports have suggested Washington was also pressuring him to quit now. However, Clinton, speaking to reporters on the way back from international talks on Egypt in Germany, suggested the pressure for Mubarak to leave sooner rather than later may be easing. ”That has to be up to the Egyptian people,” the chief US diplomat said when asked if reality dictated Mubarak play some role in the political transition toward free and fair elections in Egypt. ”The Obama Administration recalled former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner after he made similar comments just one day earlier.
Hillary Clinton: Mubarak may need to stay longer to ensure elections succeed in Egypt
WASHINGTON , February 6, 2011 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged Sunday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may need to stay on longer than many of his opponents want in order to ensure elections succeed. Under pressure from mass protests, Mubarak has pledged to step down in time for September polls but many protesters demand his immediate departure and US news reports have suggested Washington was also pressuring him to quit now. However, Clinton, speaking to reporters on the way back from international talks on Egypt in Germany, suggested the pressure for Mubarak to leave sooner rather than later may be easing. ”That has to be up to the Egyptian people,” the chief US diplomat said when asked if reality dictated Mubarak play some role in the political transition toward free and fair elections in Egypt. ”As I understand the constitution, if the president were to resign, he would be succeeded by the speaker of the house, and presidential elections would have to be held in 60 days,” she said. ”Now the Egyptians are going to have to grapple with the reality of what they must do,” she said.
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EGYPT: President Mubarak must stay for now, U.S. envoy says
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must stay in power for now to steer
the political transition, President Obama's special envoy for Egypt told
reporters Saturday.
"We need to get a national consensus around
the preconditions for the next step forward. The president must stay in
office to steer those changes," Frank Wisner told a security conference
in Munich, Germany, during a video conference from Washington, Reuters
reported.
Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and India who is seen as
having a good relationship with the Mubarak regime, was dispatched to
Cairo earlier this week by Obama to meet with Egyptian leaders."There is a chance to move forward," Wisner told the security conference Saturday. "It's fragile, it's the first stage, things could go wrong. But the direction is promising,"
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Photo: Frank Wisner, a U.S. special envoy to Egypt and former ambassador to Egypt who has good relations with the Mubarak regime, said Saturday that Mubarak must stay in power to ensure a smooth transition. Credit: Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA
Obama Administration Distances Self From Own Envoy to Mubarak
The Obama administration on Saturday distanced itself from comments about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made by a man the president had used as an envoy to Mubarak just days before.
Saying he was speaking for himself, former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner said at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that "President Mubarak remains utterly critical in the days ahead as we sort our way toward the future."
Wisner said that Mubarak "must stay in office in order to steer those changes through. … This is an ideal moment for him to show the way forward."
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, "We have great respect for Frank Wisner and we were deeply appreciative of his willingness to travel to Egypt last week. He has not continued in any official capacity following the trip. The views he expressed today are his own. He did not coordinate his comments with the U.S. government."
On Sunday, at the request of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Wisner — who has a close relationship with Mubarak — flew to Cairo to deliver a message to Mubarak that neither he nor his son Gamal should be on the ballot for the September presidential elections.
After Wisner's message became public, he was recalled because his usefulness as a conduit had been undercut, administration officials said.
Wisner, speaking via videoteleconference, today said that "The Egyptian constitution is quite clear: If the presidency is vacated, then the speaker of parliament takes over and in a couple of months you have elections. Those elections would take place under the current dispositions. Those dispositions are currently unacceptable to those protesting in the streets of Cairo today."
"The more Egyptians hear from the outside world that the president has got to go," the more a “negative force” is created inside the country, Wisner said. "This is a time for sensible and restrained external commentary."
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