Tuesday, February 08, 2011

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday that talks to resolve Egypt’s crisis were making progress despite few concrete advances between President Hosni Mubarak’s government and protesters demanding his immediate ouster.

“Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they’re making progress,” he told reporters at the White House.
Meanwhile, the White House reiterated Monday that the U.S. would continue be a partner to a new Egypt, but stressed that the country’s future leadership would need to “uphold” existing treaties, an apparent reference to its peace agreement with Israel.

Washington “will be a partner” to an Egyptian government which “will uphold the treaties and obligations” by which Cairo is presently bound, Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The United States has thrown its support behind a transition effort launched by Mubarak’s hand-picked vice president, Omar Suleiman, urging all sides to allow time for an “orderly transition” to a new political order in Egypt, for decades a strategic U.S. ally.

The Obama administration has warned that attempts to force immediate change could require elections before the opposition was ready to fully participate.
Washington’s planners are trying to assess the impact of Egypt’s crisis on Arab allies, some already facing similar unrest, and on Israel.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel and it commands an important strategic position as the guardian of the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean oil pipeline, both important energy conduits for the West.
Obama said Sunday he was confident that an orderly political transition in Egypt would produce a government that would remain a U.S. partner.

In an interview with Fox News, Obama also said the ideology of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which is President Hosni Mubarak’s best organized opposition group, included anti-U.S. strains.
But the Brotherhood lacked majority support, he said.
“So it’s important for us not to say that our only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood, or a suppressed Egyptian people,” he said.

“What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, that we’ll have a government in Egypt that we can work with together as a partner.”
Obama said only Mubarak, who took power in 1981, knew if he would leave office soon.

“But here’s what we know – that Egypt is not going to go back to what it was,” the U.S. leader said. “The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, they want a responsible government. So what we have said is you have to start a transition now.”

Egyptian opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, held talks with Egyptian government representatives Sunday but emerged saying their core demand for Mubarak’s immediate exit had not been resolved.

Mubarak has said that he will not run again for president, his son has been ruled out as next in line, a vice president has been appointed for the first time in 30 years, the ruling party leadership has quit and the old cabinet was sacked.

Obama and other U.S. officials have sought to address concerns that the talks may simply yield a transition to another authoritarian ruler, saying Washington would continue to press hard for real change. – Agencies