VIENNA: Nobel peace laureate and top reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei said on Thursday he expected large demonstrations across Egypt on Friday and that the time had come for President Hosni Mubarak to leave power. ElBaradei also offered to “lead the transition” in Egypt if asked, as he left Vienna for Cairo where he was due to join in mass anti-government protests.
“He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire,” ElBaradei told Reuters. “I think he has to declare that he is not going to run again (for president).”
“If people, in particular young people, want me to lead the transition I will not let them down,” ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, told journalists at Vienna airport. “My priority right now is to see a new Egypt and to see a new Egypt through peaceful transition,” he added.
ElBaradei’s appearance could inspire protesters who have no figurehead, although many activists resent his long absences over past months.
“I have to provide them with spiritual and political support,” he said of the protesters. “My goal is obviously to make sure that things will go in an orderly and peaceful way... I’m not the person who would lead (demonstrations) in the street ... my job is to manage the change politically.”
Pro-democracy activists vowed on Thursday to step up the largest anti-government protests in Egypt in three decades, despite mass arrests and mammoth security.
“I contine to call on the regime to understand that they better listen and listen quickly, not use violence and understand that change has to come. There’s no other option,” ElBaradei also said.
The protests against Mubarak’s autocratic rule, inspired by the groundbreaking “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia, have sent shockwaves across the region.
US President Barack Obama has been closely following reports of civil unrest in Egypt and was briefed on the situation on Thursday morning, his deputy national security adviser said.
Calls mounted on Egypt to respect the right to protest as hundreds clashed with police on the third straight day of anti-government demonstrations. The EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Cairo should “fully respect and protect the rights” of its citizens to hold peaceful political demonstrations.
She also said she deplored deaths reported in Egypt and voiced “concern” over “the high number of people injured and arrested, and the use of violence.”
“I call on all parties to exercise restraint and on the Egyptian authorities to release all peaceful demonstrators who have been detained,” the European Union’s chief diplomat added in a statement.
Ashton also urged the government to listen “carefully” to voices calling for full respect of political, social and economic rights.
In Paris foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists, “We expect the authorities and public powers concerned to respect public liberties, notably the freedom of expression.”
“We are also attentive as to the treatment and fate of the hundreds of people arrested following the demonstrations of recent days,” he said.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, speaking on a visit to Morocco, said, “We want to see democratic development in that country, but at the same time we want to see that ithappens in a way that is peaceful and non-violent.”
China said Thursday it was monitoring the situation in Egypt and expressed hope that stability would be restored after the biggest uprising against Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
“Egypt is a friend of China,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th, 2011.
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