Obama flip-flops on Egypt crisis

US President Barack Obama

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/162852.html

The Obama administration has begun hardening its tone toward embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as protests continue to rage in the North African country for the seventh consecutive day.

The White House released a statement on Sunday, which said that US President Barack Obama has discussed Egypt's uprising in calls to the leaders of the UK, Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

On Saturday, the US president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the White House said. Obama also spoke with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain on Sunday.

He also discussed the situation in Egypt with US Vice President Joe Biden and the national security team on Friday in the Oval Office during the presidential daily briefing.

In the course of those conversations, Obama urged "an orderly transition to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people,'' the White House statement read.

For the past 30 years, Egypt has, not only been a crucial US partner in the Middle East, but a linchpin in Washington's strategy for a future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Political analysts believe Obama is performing a delicate balancing act, trying to avoid abandoning Mubarak, while supporting protesters who seek broader political rights and are demanding his ouster.

In an earlier statement, the White House said its focus remained on "calling for restraint, supporting universal rights and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform."

“When President Mubarak addressed the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and greater economic opportunity. I just spoke to him after his speech. And I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise," Obama said in a January 28 address on the situation.

His remarks came as Egyptian cities had been put under a curfew, which tens of thousands of demonstrators largely ignored.

Critics called the response timid because it lacked explicit demands -- stark evidence of the bind the White House finds itself in.

Washington gave Cairo $1.3 billion in military aid and $250 million in economic aid in the 2010 fiscal year.

“We will be reviewing our assistance posture based on events that take place in the coming days,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs warned on Friday.

However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected any aid review comment on Sunday, on the sixth day of the protests against Mubarak's regime.

“We always are looking and reviewing our aid, but right now we are trying to convey a message that is very clear -- that we want to ensure there is no violence and no provocation that results in violence,” Clinton said.

Egypt's revolution is understandably causing anxiety in Israel. The nightmare scenario of a collapse of the Mubarak regime and creation of an Islamic republic across the border has, for years, haunted Israel's leaders.

On Sunday, Israeli Premier Netanyahu spoke of "efforts to maintain stability and security in our region," succinctly summing up Israel's change-averse foreign policy.