Updated on
Summary
President Obama has called on Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak to take concrete steps to move toward greater democracy and economic reform.President Obama on Friday strongly defended the rights of Egyptian protesters who have taken to the streets to demand political change, cautioning the government of President Hosni Mubarak to avoid violence and adopt concrete steps that advance the rights of the country's citizens. Obama's televised remarks capped a day of warnings from his administration, including a threat to review the aid package Egypt receives from the United States, that reflected the urgency of the crisis facing America's most powerful ally in the Arab world. The US President made his comments on television shortly after he and Mubarak spoke in what the White House said was a 30-minute conversation. The conversation followed closely on a middle-of-the-night TV speech in which Mubarak, in Cairo, announced he was sacking his government to form a new one that would accelerate reforms. At the same time, he said, violence by protesters would not be tolerated. Obama's remarks capped a day in which his administration struggled to keep abreast of developments in Egypt, where Mubarak ordered police and then the military into the streets in response to the thousands of protesters.
