U.S. toughens stance on Egypt
‘Transition’ comment seen as signal to Mubarak
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday called for a “peaceful, orderly transition to greater democracy” in Egypt that includes the military, the ruling party and the Egyptians who have taken to the streets to call for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s leadership.
Yet even as she was careful to say the U.S. was not advocating any specific outcome, Clinton and the White House made it clear that support is dwindling for Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.
Their use of the word “transition” appeared to signal a hardening of U.S. policy toward Mubarak in the course of just 48 hours. On Friday, neither Clinton nor President Barack Obama used the word when they publicly called on the Egyptian leader to initiate “concrete steps that advance political reforms.”
That changed over the weekend, as protests continued across Egypt, and as those demonstrating as well as opposition leaders called on the U.S. to drop its support for the 82-year-old president who shut down Internet access and limited cell-phone service for the country of more than 80 million.
In conversations over the weekend with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the prime ministers of Turkey, Israel and Britain, the White House said the president called for “supporting an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”
“I want the Egyptian people to have the chance to chart a new future. It needs to be an orderly, peaceful transition to real democracy,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Not faux democracy, like the elections we saw in Iran two years ago, where you have one election 30 years ago and then the people just keep staying in power and become less and less responsive to their people.”
Clinton emphasized during several appearances on Sunday morning talk shows that Egyptians have a timetable in place for reform, with elections scheduled for September. At one point, she suggested the orderly transition should include Mubarak, who dismissed his Cabinet and this weekend appointed a vice president for the first time in his 30-year term.
“We want to see a real democracy that reflects the vibrancy of Egyptian society,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And we believe that President Mubarak, his government, civil society, political activists need to be part of a national dialogue to bring that about.”
Although successive U.S. administrations have pressed Mubarak to adopt reforms, that pressure has mostly been rhetorical and has wavered over time.
Mubarak’s government is scheduled to receive about $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid and more than $200 million in economic assistance in the current fiscal year.