Posted on 02/01/2011 3:12:36 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama appeared on Tuesday to have persuaded his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, to take a middle course of promising to step aside later this year.
It was unclear if that would satisfy the hundreds of thousands of protesters who gathered across Egypt to call on Mubarak to immediately relinquish power.
After days of putting pressure on Mubarak while seeking to avoid unleashing instability in the longtime U.S. ally and most populous Arab nation, Obama sent an envoy to privately urge the Egyptian president to prepare for a transition in power.
Hours later, Mubarak said in a speech that he would not run for the presidency in September and would work in the last months of his term to allow the transfer of power, saying the main priority was the stability of the nation.
"It won't work. This just really won't work," Elliot Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser, told CNN.
"I can't see anybody in Tahrir Square accepting that he will be president for eight more months and that he would, after 30 years, be trusted to be the man in charge of the democratic transition. Why would anyone believe that?"
Former U.S. ambassador Frank Wisner met with Mubarak earlier and delivered a message about the need to prepare for an "orderly transition," according to U.S. officials.
Obama has struggled to balance pressure to back protesters' calls for political change against any perception the United States is meddling in another country's affairs. U.S. officials have been concerned that publicly urging Mubarak to quit would unsettle other authoritarian U.S. allies in the region.
Mubarak, 82, has been a close U.S. partner for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
yep.
“...his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak...” ??
Abrams is only right when happenstance collides with his spin. He is a dedicated agitator and is *probably* the illegal recipient of $10 Million that was supposed to go to the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei.
He’s also a convict. Or ex-con, if you will...though he still remains a “con” man.
absolutly agree! think Zero is being blackmailed
Obama would lie about being married to Mitchell if it suited his purpose.
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