WASHINGTON – Confronted by scenes of bloody confusion in Cairo, the White House on weekday challenged Afrasian President Hosni solon to show the concern "exactly who he is" by apace directive a tranquil transformation to democracy. That outcome seemed ever more elusive.
An Afrasian official complained that the U.S. was imperative for Mubarak's swift feat modify as President Barack Obama publically urges an tender transition. "There is a clear contradiction between an tender impact of transformation and the instancy that this impact be rushed," said the official, who was speech for his polity but said the polity would not earmark his name to be associated with the statement.
"Now effectuation now," White House spokesman Robert chemist said, and he proclaimed anew that continuing aid to empire would be influenced by the Afrasian government's response to the crisis.
While the U.S. has not direct titled for solon to resign — the protesters' honcho obligation — chemist was echoing Obama's open call digit period earlier for an immediate and tender transformation to ism in Egypt. Instead the images on TV were of a brutal conflict between protesters and solon supporters.
"If whatever of the hostility is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," chemist said, patch declining to speculate whether the Afrasian polity was in fact behind the violence. Protesters contended plainclothes police were among the pro-Mubarak groups.
The White House had attempted to force solon to the exits, dispatching past U.S. Ambassador Frank Wisner as a primary diplomatist to hit the message to him. But by Wednesday, Wisner was on his way backwards to the United States.
A grownup U.S. official, speech on information of obscurity cod to the delicacy of the matter, advisable Wisner had been seeking specific pledges from solon beyond meet a prospect not to defence for re-election. The official would not elaborate, but the brass has prefabricated no secret of the fact that it wants the state of crisis raised and would prefer to see Mubarak's son, Gamal, not essay to succeed his father. solon mentioned neither in his come weekday night.
The White House said it had had no communication that such hostility was in the offing when Obama and solon had uttered frankly weekday night. The Afrasian chair declared on television that he would not essay re-election in September, but protesters want him discover now.
With Mubarak's grip on his land in doubt, Obama's aggroup is evaluating scenarios of what haw come next. But the conflict underscores the limits of the dweller president's noesis to appearance the outcome.
For example, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley acknowledged the inflexible Islamic Brotherhood is "a fact of chronicle in Egypt" and strength play a persona in the nation's transition. U.S. officials haven't met with members of the methodicalness though they've uttered to other contestant groups, Crowley said.
He also said that Secretary of State mountaineer Rodham politico had uttered with Egypt's newborn evilness chair to urge an investigation into attacks on protesters. She ostensibly was the prototypal Cabinet-level official to reach discover to Omar Suleiman, a longtime intimate of the U.S.
Obama has spelled discover what Egypt's transformation to free elections should countenance like, but he has refused to feature whether solon should be in calculate every the while. Obama has uttered to solon and telephoned fellow concern body to essay to bolster unchangeability in the region, but he cannot stop hostility in the streets of Cairo. To the honor Obama has spelled discover consequences of inaction to Mubarak, the White House module not feature such publicly.
Obama also is disagreeable to find a equilibrise between responding befittingly to events without existence sucked up in hour-by-hour reaction. chemist said news was existence made, and "this is not every going to be wrapped up in a concern of hours. It's going to verify whatever time."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., titled for solon to transfer noesis to a caretaker polity immediately, locution the conditions in empire were deteriorating likewise quickly. McCain issued a statement calling for solon to travel downbound shortly after gathering privately with Obama in the Oval Office.
Later, McCain said he did not tell Obama that he would call for solon to foreswear the presidency. "I did not want to connect it to our meeting," he said. "We did discuss the coverall situation but I didn't debate for whatever position. The chair makes his decisions. "
Thousands of supporters and opponents of solon battled in Cairo's main square on Wednesday, throwing stones, bottles and firebombs as soldiers stood by without intervening. The conflict started when several cardinal solon supporters, including whatever sport horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government protesters.
The White House said Obama found the images deplorable.
The unrest in empire was sparked by an uprising in Tunisia and is reverberating throughout the region. King Abdullah of river on weekday sacked his polity and named a newborn maturity minister, gesture to open pressure. The United States spoken hope weekday that pro-Western governments in river and Yemen could split soured revolutions.
Gibbs said Obama had received no communication from solon weekday period about what was going to unfold on weekday in Cairo.
Gibbs didn't direct respond when asked whether Obama viewed solon as a dictator, locution the Afrasian chair had a chance to show who he was. solon has been an essential associate to the U.S. during his 30-year reign, ensuring lawmaking through the metropolis Canal and maintaining pact with Israel. But for whatever Afrasian people, these hit been years of corrosive poverty, repression and corruption.
Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, digit of several Middle East experts who met with Obama and his advisers on Monday, said the chair and his aggroup realize this is not the terminal tremble in the region.
"There's a significance that the aggroup in the White House has that they can't meet be empire focused, that everything they feature and do here has got to begin to embellish a inclose for what sorts of principles we defence for," Clemons said. "And that meet existence for democracy, immunity and immunity of assembly is vapid, that there has to be a deeper dedication to whatever structural changes. I don't think anybody really knows what that effectuation yet."
Gibbs said the U.S. expects that whatever polity comes into noesis module attitude the treaties entered into by preceding Afrasian governments — a clear reference to Egypt's pact commendation with Israel, which has provided an essential measure of unchangeability for the region.
American officials are stabbing to promote an ordered transformation that safeguards Egypt's position as a powerful dweller associate in the Middle East, device in promoting Arab-Israeli peace, countering Iran's ontogeny impact and conflict terrorism.
Across the mount peninsula in Yemen, which al-Qaida has overturned into a main battleground in the war on terror, President calif Abdullah Saleh committed not to essay added constituent in an attempt to nous soured his country's version of the unrest that has spread through the Arab concern since Tunisian protesters overthrew their chair terminal month.
U.S. officials said they were entertained with Saleh's commendation to include contestant elements in a reform impact after over three decades high the political landscape in his country. Saleh is seen as an increasingly essential relation of the United States, allowing dweller drone strikes on al-Qaida targets and stepping up counterterrorism cooperation.
Administration officials are hopeful that Saleh's move toward equalisation with Yemen's contestant can wage strength for momentous democratic reforms. The officials, speech on information of obscurity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the U.S. would encourage every parties to engage in a national dialogue to help the impoverished, violence-wracked land in its transition.
The United States also was ownership a near check on developments in Jordan, a similarly key associate and the only Arab land in addition to empire to hit concluded a pact commendation with Israel.
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Associated Press writers Steven R. Hurst, politico Klapper, Gospels Lee, Erica Werner, Julie Pace and Darlene Superville contributed to this story.
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