Despite his attempted wooing of the army, the Egyptian president is increasingly weakened by increasing pressure from the street and the seeming lack of support from the United States.
Changes in its government decided on Saturday have done nothing to quell the popular anger. Hosni Mubarak is increasingly a lone man at the head of Egypt and his presidency seems to hang by a thread.
While demonstrations have taken place during a more beautiful Sunday in major cities across the country, Mubarak’s support seems at an all time low. This is where its closest ally, the United States, who now seemingly speak through the mouth of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promoting an “orderly transition” : “We expect an orderly transition so that no one comes fills a void, so there is no vacuum (but) a well developed plan for the advent of a democratic participatory government. Even the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), far from being hungry for democracy, called for “maximum restraint and preservation of human lives as well as public and private property. “
Mubarak visits the army
In Egypt itself, the mobilization has not abated in spite of the announcement of changes at the head of the government. By picking the head of the secret service as vice president and another general as prime minister, then going to visit the military operations center, Hosni Mubarak has turned to the military to give an image of strength to his very shaken regime, mainly to link its fate to that of the army. But the street was not impressed and has conducted its sixth day of demonstrations in all major cities.
“The people want the regime to fall,” Mubarak go! “Chanted the demonstrators congregated Midan Tahrir, the” place of liberation “in the center of the capital since Tuesday which has carried the pulse of the popular protest and has seen over a hundred deaths across the country. In Mansoura (Nile Delta), 5,000 demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the governor, demanding the president’s departure on placards signed “Young Egypt”. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, riots erupted in several prisons. Thousands of inmates escaped prison in Wadi Natron, 100 km north of Cairo, according to a source within the security services. Dozens of bodies lay on the floor near another jail in eastern Cairo.
Neighborhood committees against looters
The movement has partly paralyzed the country : many ATMs were empty, the banks and the stock market, which registered sharp declines Wednesday and Thursday before the weekly holiday, remained closed. After extensive looting in Cairo, while the major cities of Alexandria and Suez imposed a curfew 16 hours and 8 hours respectively, the army seemed more present and noticeable on Sunday. And neighborhood committees began handing looters over to the armed forces.
This afternoon, the National Coalition for Change, which includes several opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, has appointed Mohamed ElBaradei , former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to “negotiate with power “.
Alarm across markets in the Gulf
Markets from Arab Gulf countries, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Sunday plunged as a result of tensions in Egypt. At the Dubai Financial Market, DFM index closed down 4.32%. The Abu Dhabi lost 3.74%. In Kuwait, the stock market, the second Arab market after Saudi Arabia, has lost 2.14% during early trade, then finished down 1.76% at 6,822 points. The Saudi market, the largest in the Arab world, had yielded 6.43% and closed at 6267.22 points on Saturday, which was the only one open in the region. Sunday, was an exception: it had recovered some of its losses, closing up 2.47% to 6421.97 points. The Cairo Stock Exchange was closed Sunday after the suspension of trading on Thursday a plunge of 10%.