The Obama Administration's balancing act on Egypt continues, as the protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster show no signs of abating after 16 days. Having initially come close to suggesting it was time for Mubarak to go (without actually saying as much), the Obama Administration brought relief to its regional allies — Israel and other Arab autocrats — by endorsing Mubarak's intelligence chief, hastily appointed as Vice President, to oversee an "orderly" political transition. However, a democratic transfer of power is not what Omar Suleiman appears to have in mind, Time reports.
Not only has Suleiman failed to engage seriously with any of the key demands of the opposition but he has begun to darkly warn that the "intolerable" protest action must be speedily brought to an end. And so the Administration has found itself having to scold and berate the man Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last weekend hailed as the leader to oversee the transition.
"It is clear that what the [Egyptian] government has thus far put forward has yet to meet a minimum threshold for the people of Egypt," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday. "We believe that more has to be done."
Read the entire story at time.com
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