Egypt VP meets groups, offers new concessions

Egypt Protests

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Associated Press

CAIRO

Egypt’s vice president met with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups for the first time Sunday and offered sweeping concessions, including granting press freedom and rolling back police powers in the government’s latest attempt to try to end nearly two weeks of upheaval.

But the opposition leaders held firm to a demand the government rejects: that President Hosni Mubarak step down immediately. And the source of the opposition’s sudden power — the youthful protesters filling Cairo’s main square — said they weren’t even represented at the talks and won’t negotiate until Mubarak is gone.

“None of those who attended represent us,” said Khaled Abdul-Hamid, one leader of a new coalition representing at least five youth movements that organized the 13-day-old protests. “We are determined to press on until our No. 1 demand is met” — the ouster of Mubarak.

There were signs that the paralysis gripping the country since the crisis began was easing Sunday, the first day of Egypt’s workweek. Some schools reopened for the first time in more than a week, and so did banks. A night curfew remains, and tanks continue to ring the city’s central square and guard government buildings, embassies and other important institutions.

Since protests began Jan. 25, the 82-year-old Mubarak has pledged not to seek another term in elections in September. The government promised that his son Gamal, who had widely been expected to succeed him, will not do so. Mubarak appointed a vice president — Omar Suleiman — for the first time since he took office three decades ago. He sacked his Cabinet, named a new one and promised reforms. And Saturday, the top leaders of the ruling party, including Gamal Mubarak, were purged.

Sunday brought another concession that would have been unimaginable just a month ago: Suleiman’s meeting with opposition groups including the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed since 1954 but is the ruling party’s largest rival.

Egypt’s opposition — essentially banned by the government for decades — has long been hampered by a lack of cohesiveness. Sunday’s talks could be a sign the government is trying to divide and conquer as it tries to placate protesters without giving in to their chief demand.

Mubarak is insisting he cannot stand down now or it would only deepen the chaos in his country.

On Sunday, speaking to Fox News ahead of the Super Bowl football broadcast, President Barack Obama said he would not be drawn into predicting when Mubarak would leave office.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that forcing Mubarak to leave office quickly could complicate the already enormous challenges Egypt faces in transforming itself from autocracy to democracy.