Mubarak disappoints Obama

Combined dispatches

WASHINGTON

Bristling with impati- ence, President Barack Obama on Thursday openly and sharply questioned whether Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s pledge to shift power to his vice president is an “immediate, meaningful or sufficient” sign of reform for a country in upheaval.

Without naming Mubarak, Obama issued a written statement that criticized the leader for not offering clarity to his people or a concrete path to democracy. He called on Egyptian government leaders to do so, declaring: “They have not yet seized that opportunity.”

Obama’s comments came after Mubarak, in a televised speech, refused to step down despite intense speculation that he was on the brink of ouster. He said he was delegating powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman, yet Mubarak remained president and defiantly said he would remain so until a successor was elected to replace him in September. Protesters were shocked, saddened and enraged.

The country was anticipating an address that would mark the end of Mubarak’s 30 years in power but instead was told that he was going nowhere. Protesters shouted “leave, leave,” and chants of disapproval echoed across the Nile at the prospect that the 17-day standoff with the government was not over.

“For the benefit of this country,” Mubarak said, “I have decided to assign the tasks of the president to the vice president according to the constitution.”

The rapidly moving events raised the question of whether a rift had opened between Mubarak and the military command over the uprising demanding the president’s resignation. Hours earlier, a council of the military’s top generals announced it had stepped in to secure the country, and a senior commander announced to protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that all their demands would soon be met, raising cries of victory that Mubarak was on his way out.

Several hundred thousand had packed into Tahrir Square, ecstatic with expectation that Mubarak would announce his resignation in his nighttime address. Instead, they watched in shocked silence as he spoke, holding their foreheads in anger and disbelief. Some broke into tears. Others waved their shoes in the air in contempt.

Organizers called for even larger protests today. After Mubarak’s speech, around 2,000 marched on the state television headquarters several blocks away from Tahrir, guarded by the military with barbed wire and tanks. “They are the liars,” the crowd shouted, pointing at the building, chanting, “We won’t leave, they will leave.”

Prominent reform advocate and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed El Baradei, whose supporters were among the organizers of the 17-day-old wave of protests, issued a Tweet warning: “Egypt will explode.”

“The army must save the country now,” he said. “I call on the Egyptian army to immediately interfere to rescue Egypt. The credibility of the army is on the line.”

Hours before Mubarak’s speech, the military made moves that had all the markings of a coup.

The military’s Supreme Council, headed by Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, announced on state TV that it was in permanent session, a status that it takes only in times of war. It said it was exploring “what measures and arrangements could be made to safeguard the nation, its achievements and the ambitions of its great people.” That suggested Tantawi and his generals were now in charge of the country.

The statement was labeled “Communique No. 1,” language that also suggests a military coup.

“We are waiting for a strong reaction from the army to Mubarak’s speech,” said Mohammed Mustapha, a protest spokesman. He said “huge numbers” of protesters were expected Friday and that many wanted to march on the Oruba palace, Mubarak’s main presidential palace several miles away from Tahrir — though so far, organizers had not made a formal call to do so.

The mood among protesters was a mix of fury, disappointment, determination to go on and a grim realism that they should have expected little else from Mubarak.