Muslim Brotherhood to begin talks with Egyptian Govt
Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said it would begin talks today with the government to try to end the country’s political crisis.
It comes after the leadership of Egypt’s ruling party stepped down as the military figures spearheading the transition tried to placate protesters without giving them the one resignation they demand, that of President Hosni Mubarak.
The US gave key backing to the regime’s gradual changes, warning of the dangers if Mr Mubarak departed too quickly.
The outlawed Brotherhood said in a statement that its representatives would meet Vice President Suleiman to press its “legitimate and just demands”.
Senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mursi said the group was sticking to the protesters’ main condition that President Mubarak step down.
But protesters in the streets rejected the new concessions and vowed to keep up their campaign until the 82-year-old president stepped down.
Many are convinced that the regime wants to wear down their movement and enact only superficial democratic reforms that will leave its deeply entrenched monopoly on power in place.
Tens of thousands thronged Cairo’s central Tahrir Square in a 12th day of protests yesterday, waving flags and chanting: “He will go! He will go!”
Mr Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an authoritarian hand for nearly 30 years, insists he must stay in office until his term ends, after a September presidential election.
The military figures he has installed to lead the government – vice president Omar Suleiman and prime minister Ahmed Shafiq – have offered in the meantime to hold negotiations with the protesters and the entire opposition over democratic reforms to ensure a fair vote.
A day after US president Barack Obama pushed Mr Mubarak to leave quickly, the US administration changed its tone with a strong endorsement of Mr Suleiman’s plans.
“It’s important to support the transition process announced by the Egyptian government actually headed by now-Vice President Omar Suleiman,” secretary of state Hillary Clinton said at an international security conference in Munich, Germany.
She warned that without orderly change, extremists could derail the process.
A US envoy who met Mr Mubarak earlier this week, former ambassador Frank Wisner, went further still, saying it was “crucial” that Mr Mubarak remain in place for the time being to ensure reforms go through.
He pointed out that under the constitution, a Mubarak resignation would require new elections in two months, meaning they would take place under the current rules that all but guarantee a ruling party victory.
His comment was an abrupt change in message – on Friday, Mr Obama called on Mr Mubarak to “make the right decision”. The State Department later said Mr Wisner was speaking as a private citizen since his official mission to Egypt had ended.
America’s confidence in Mr Suleiman is not shared by the protesters, who doubt the ruling party will bring democracy unless they continue their mass demonstrations.
They want the concrete victory of Mr Mubarak’s removal – though some appear willing to settle for his sidelining as a figurehead – with a broad-based transitional government to work out a new constitution.
“What happened so far does not qualify as reform,” said Amr Hamzawy, a member of the Committee of Wise Men, a self-appointed group of prominent figures from Egypt’s elite that is unconnected to the protesters but has met Mr Suleiman to explore solutions to the crisis.
“There seems to be a deliberate attempt by the regime to distract the proponents of change and allow the demands to disintegrate in the hope of (regime) survival.”
That could mean the crisis could move into a test of sheer endurance, as protesters try to keep drumming out tens of thousands into Tahrir day after day.
The government and military have promised not to try to clear protesters from the square and soldiers continued to let people enter to join the growing rally.
But there were signs of army impatience yesterday. At one point, tanks tried to clear a main boulevard by bulldozing burned-out vehicles that protesters used for barricades during the fighting with pro-regime attackers in the past week.
The move prompted heated arguments with protesters who demanded the husks remain in place in case they were attacked again. The troops relented only after protesters sat on the ground in front of the tanks.
The resignation of the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Party appeared to be a new step by Mr Suleiman to convince protesters that he was sincere about reform – or at least convince the broader public so support for the movement fades.
The six-member party Steering Committee that stepped down included some of the country’s most powerful political figures – and the most unpopular among many Egyptians. Among them was the party secretary general, Safwat el-Sharif, and the president’s son Gamal Mubarak.
State TV, announcing the resignations, still identified Hosni Mubarak as president of the ruling party in a sign he would remain in authority.
Gamal has long been seen as his father’s intended heir as president, a prospect that raised outrage among many Egyptians. The turmoil has crushed those ambitions, however, with Mr Suleiman promising in the past week that Gamal would not run for president in September.
Meanwhile state TV announced that banks and courts, closed for most of the turmoil, would reopen today, the start of Egypt’s work week, a move to depict that some normality was returning to a capital of 18 million that has been paralysed for nearly two weeks.
