More Egyptian Bait & Switch
The BBC has the White House reaction to today’s games – Egypt protests: Obama impatient for credible transition
US President Barack Obama says the Egyptian government has yet to put forward a “credible, concrete and unequivocal” path to democracy.
He said Egyptians “remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy”.
Egypt’s President Mubarak has said he plans to stay in office until September’s polls, but pledged to hand over some powers.
Anti-government protesters have reacted angrily to Mr Mubarak’s address.
“The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient,” said Mr Obama.
“The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity,” he said.
In his nationally televised address earlier, President Mubarak had said he would delegate some powers to Vice-President Omar Suleiman, but the details remained unclear.
His comments confounded earlier reports that he was preparing to stand down immediately.
From the sequence of the announcements it would appear that the Egyptian military thought they had a deal that would involve Mubarak leaving, and putting Suleiman in charge. Suleiman seemed to confirm this deal. Based on this the US make a statement that reflected this deal having been struck.
Part of the deal was Mubarak making a speech to formally announce the deal, but Mubarak didn’t change his position at all. He says he is going to stay until the elections in the Fall.
Needless to say, the protesters are having none of it, and the White House is thoroughly PO’ed about being gamed by the Egyptians. It sounds like the military cut a deal with the US and couldn’t pull it off, because Mubarak won’t leave. This puts the military in the position having to consider “doing something” about Mubarak.
The protests are expanding, and today’s “drama” will probably increase the turn out on Friday.
