Mubarak should not step down says Biden

Egypt News.Net
Friday 28th January, 2011

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has defended the Mubarak regime in Egypt, describing President Hosni Mubarak as a U.S. ally who has helped to normalize relations with Israel, and has been a force in Middle East peace negotiations.
Biden has told PBS NewsHour in an interview, President Mubarak should not stand down, and that “legitimate” claims of protestors should be responded to. He did not clarify which of the claims protestors are making that he considers legitimate.

Egypt is on the brink of a Tunisia-type revolution with the Mubarak government using brutal force to stamp out protests and demonstrations which have erupted across the country.

Severe interference to access to social media networks on the Internet has taken place with Twitter, Facebook and the video-sharing network Bambusa, virtually shut down.
Telecommunications operators are also restricting mobile phone calls and texting.

 Journalists, including Associated Press reporters, and at least one correspondent from The Guardian, have been jailed, and reportedly beaten.

The vicious crackdown, media clampdown, six deaths, hundreds of injuries, a thousand arrests, and social media disruption has enflamed the 80-million population. More and protests are expected to follow.
Hundreds of thousands are expected to join the growing protests on Friday after Friday prayers.

The United States has been a steadfast ally of Hosni Mubarak since he rose to power almost three decades ago following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Mubarak is also an ally of Israel, heading one of only two Arab countries to recognise the Jewish state, the other being Jordan.
On Thursday night NewsHour host Jim Lehrer asked Vice President Biden if the time had come for President Mubarak of Egypt to go? "No,” replied Biden. “I think the time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction that, – to be more responsive to some... of the needs of the people out there."

The U.S. vice president was asked if he would characterize Mubarak as a dictator. “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he has been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing its relationship with – with Israel. … I would not refer to him as a dictator.”
The U.S. vice president encouraged protestors to demonstrate peacefully – and legitimate concerns they had “should be responded to.”

"We’re encouraging the protesters to, as they assemble, do it peacefully. And we’re encouraging the government to act responsibly and... and to try to engage in a discussion as to what the legitimate claims being made are, if they are, and try to work them out," he said.
"I think that what we should continue to do is to encourage reasonable accommodation and discussion to try to resolve peacefully and amicably the concerns and claims made by those who have taken to the street.

And those that are legitimate should be responded to because the economic well-being and the stability of Egypt rests upon that middle class buying into the future of Egypt," the U.S. vice president said.




http://www.egyptnews.net/story/737115/ht/Mubarak-should-not-step-down-says-Biden