Egyptians won’t allow repressive govt. to fill Mubarak’s void: Obama

Washington, Feb 7 : US President Barack Obama has said that although Washington cannot force out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, he hopes that a “whole bunch of secular” people in Egypt will no longer allow an unresponsive government without free and fair elections.

He further said that orderly transition to a new government could help in establishing a relatively pro -American government in that country.

"What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, they will have a government in Egypt that will work together with us" as partners, Fox New quoted Obama, as saying.

Obama also laid to rest fears that Mubarak’s resignation could lead a group like the radical Muslim Brotherhood to fill the void.

"The Muslim Brotherhood is one faction in Egypt. They don''t have majority support in Egypt, but they are well organized and there are strains of their ideology that are against the U. S., there''s no doubt about it," Obama said.

"But here''s the thing that we have to understand, there are a whole bunch of secular folks in Egypt, there are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that wants to come to the fore as well. So it''s important for us not to say that our own only two options are either the Muslim Brotherhood or a suppressed people," he added.

Egyptian Vice-President Omar Suleiman had met opposition groups, including the officially banned Brotherhood, to figure out ways to end the political crisis in Egypt yesterday.

Mubarak had ruled Egypt without a vice president for 30 years, but suddenly appointed 74-year-old Suleiman as his deputy last month amid huge protests demanding the autocratic ruler’s resignation. (ANI)
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