CAIRO, (Reuters) – President Hosni Mubarak provoked rage on Egypt’s streets today when he said he would hand over powers to his deputy but refused to step down after more than two weeks of protests demanding that he quit.
The armed forces high command had earlier issued “Communique No.1”, declaring it was taking control of the nation in what some called a military coup seeking to end the turmoil under the 82-year-old former general, who has ruled for 30 years.
“Leave! Leave!” chanted hundreds of thousands who had gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in anticipation that a televised address would be the moment their demands were met.
Instead, the former air force commander portrayed himself as a patriot and war hero overseeing an orderly transition until an election in September — in which he said last week he would not stand. Mubarak praised young people who have stunned the Arab world with unprecedented rallies. He offered constitutional change and a bigger role for Vice President Omar Suleiman.
Waving shoes in the air in a dramatic Arab show of contempt, the crowds in central Cairo chanted: “Down, down Hosni Mubarak.”
Asked if Mubarak would step down, an Egyptian official had told Reuters before the speech: “Most probably”. But his information minister had said that would not be the case.
Joy turned to despair and then to anger.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize winner and retired U.N. diplomat who runs a liberal political movement, wrote on Twitter: “Egypt will explode. Army must save the country now.”
DELEGATING POWERS
In a 20-minute address in which he said he would not bow to foreign pressure — Washington has called on its old ally to make way quickly — Mubarak said he would “delegate to the vice president of the republic the prerogatives of the president of the republic in a manner that is fixed by the constitution”.
“It is not immediately clear what powers are being handed over,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC.
Suleiman, a 74-year-old former intelligence chief who was promoted just last month, is not widely popular with protesters who are seeking a complete break with the military-dominated system that has governed Egypt for the past six decades.
Suleiman appeared on state television to say there was a “road map” for transition and said he would oversee a “peaceful transition of power” in the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Egypt’s sprawling armed forces — the world’s 10th biggest and more than 468,000-strong — have been at the heart of power since army officers overthrew the British-backed king in 1952.
The army, from politically plugged-in generals to poor conscripts and junior officers, is key to what happens next. “This poses a real dilemma for the army,” said Rosemary Hollis at London’s City University. “Are they going to allow the demonstrators to escalate their demonstrations so that they push the point that Mubarak has got to go, and that means the army definitely does split with Mubarak? he demonstrators are very disappointed and there will be violence.”
Robert Springborg of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School called Mubarak and Suleiman’s speeches “enormously provocative”, made by “desperate men, willing to gamble the fate of the nation for their own personal interest”.
“The speeches … are not intended to bring an end to the crisis in a peaceful way but to inflame the situation so there is justification for the imposition of direct military rule. They are risking not only the coherence of the military but even indeed, and I use this term with advisement here, civil war.”
The army quelled bread riots in Egypt in 1977 and halted a rampage by policemen over pay in 1986, but the momentous scale and consequences of the uprising that began on Jan. 25 across the country dwarfs those events.
I FELT YOUR PAIN
“I have felt all the pain you felt,” said Mubarak, who last week had already pledged not to run again in September. “I will not go back on my response to your voice and your call.”
“Your demands are legitimate and just … There is no shame in hearing your voices and opinions, but I refuse any and all dictations from abroad,” he said.
