Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he will step down after elections later this year is "an act of deception" and won't satisfy the demands of those protesting against his 29-year rule, according to opposition leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he will step down
after elections later this year is "an act of deception" and won't
satisfy the demands of those protesting against his 29-year rule, according to
opposition leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.
"Nobody is satisfied with that, nobody is ready to be naive, not see a
ploy," Mr. ElBaradei told a small group of journalists in an interview. "It's
an act of deception to me."
He said Mubarak needs to leave
Egypt
in
order to bring an end to the mass demonstrations calling for him to step down.
"Once he's out of the country" the demonstrators will go home, Mr.
ElBaradei said.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall
Street Journal website, WSJ.com.)
Mr. Mubarak said Tuesday that he wouldn't run in the next election and called
for constitutional reforms, opening the door for opposition groups and his
regime to square off for control of the country's future. Mr. ElBaradei has
emerged as a leader of a loose coalition of opposition forces that includes the
Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr. ElBaradei warned against acts of violence by government supporters, such as
those taking place in the central
Tahrir
Square
in
Cairo
on
Wednesday. He said attacks on demonstrators by Mubarak supporters would make it
difficult to conduct negotiations with "a regime that is a bunch of
thugs."
Mr. ElBaradei said that the Muslim Brotherhood needs to be involved in any
caretaker government as
Egypt
moves
toward democracy. He said the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood wants to
establish an "extremist state" in
Egypt
is a
"bogus fiction".
Mr. ElBaradei didn't respond directly to a question about whether he would
support
Egypt
's
peace treaty with
Israel
if he
ends up replacing Mr. Mubarak as president. But he said that
Egypt
's
foreign policy has failed and needs to change.
"Well, I'm not a president but I tell you that our foreign policy needs to
be completely realigned. I mean the foreign policy right now is quite a
failure," he said. "And I think whether
Egypt
has
an authoritarian system or whether
Egypt
has a
democracy, there are still issues to be settled with the Palestinians."
But Mr. ElBaradei said this doesn't necessarily mean that
Egypt
would
turn its back on the peace treaty with
Israel
if it
holds free elections. "This was one of the fictions -- that a democratic
Egypt
would
mean that
Egypt
would
be hostile with
Israel
,"
Mr. ElBaradei said.
"The peace treaty, or a peace between
Israel
and
the Arab world, will definitely be a durable one if it is concluded between
democracies and not dictators," Mr. ElBaradei said.
He said he is proposing the abolishing of
Egypt
's
current constitution and the dissolving of the national assembly. Going
forward, he is suggesting the creation of a three-person presidential council,
including a representative from the military, followed by the formation of a
caretaker government of technocrats to prepare for free elections.
Mr. ElBaradei said
Egypt
would
need a provisional constitution for a period of a year "while we prepare
the ground for a new democratic constitution and have a free and fair
election."
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