Mubarak Will Stay Until September, His Premier Says

From: www.nytimes.com

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will remain in office "until the end of September," his newly-appointed prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, told CNN minutes ago.
Speaking by telephone from Cairo, Mr. Shafiq, a former air force commander, told CNN: "President Mubarak will leave in September... and now the discussion is if he is able to leave before or not: we insist here in Egypt to continue his period until the end of September." Apparently referring to the regime's insistence that the country's constitution must be changed to allow for a transition that maintains the current order, he added that "a lot of points must be covered before he leaves." So I think we are in bad need for the presence of his excellency."
Mr. Shafiq's remarks appeared to echo a statement on Saturday by the Washington lobbyist and former diplomat, Frank Wisner, who met with Mr. Mubarak last week on behalf of the Obama administration. As my colleague David Sanger reported on Saturday:
the man sent last weekend by President Obama to persuade the 82-year-old leader to step out of the way, Frank G. Wisner, told a group of diplomats and security experts that "President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical - it's his opportunity to write his own legacy."
But just before his remarks, Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton gave a strategy overview that stood at odds with that assessment. At a minimum, she said, Mr. Mubarak must move out of the way so that his vice president, Omar Suleiman, can engage in talks with protest leaders over everything from constitutional changes to free and fair elections.
Frank Wisner, a retired diplomat who met with Egypt's president last week on behalf of the Obama administration, spoke to a security conference in Munich by video on Saturday.
Julian Borger, The Guardian's diplomatic correspondent, observed:
Frank Wisner's apparent love song to Hosni Mubarak has left confusion behind him. Speaking on a video link-up from New York to the Munich Security Conference, Barack Obama's special envoy to Egypt veered wildly off-message in seemingly fond remarks about the Egyptian autocrat.
Wisner, who had just returned from Cairo, started by making a constitutional argument for Mubarak to stay. If the presidency is vacated, Wisner said, the speaker of the parliament would fill the post, and elections would have to be held within two months. Those elections would have to be fought under the existing rules, which are unacceptable to the opposition.
The argument ignored the allowance under the constitution for the president to delegate powers, which he has done in the past while undergoing medical treatment. But at least the argument sounding dispassionate. What followed didn't.
As Mr. Borger reported, Mr. Wisner appeared to directly contradict President Obama's push to have Mr. Mubarak step down. The retired diplomat, who now works at Patton, Boggs, a lobbying firm with ties to the Egyptian regime, said:
The president must stay in office to steer those changes through. I therefore believe that President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical; it's his opportunity to write his own legacy. He has given 60 years of his life to the service of his country and this is an ideal moment for him to show the way forward.

Blogger comment:
It is time now to start trial of Mubarak for abuse of power and killing his people in a peaceful revolution. The wicked Mubarak lived wicked and will die as a wicked man. If America is not behind him even in secret you would have different scenario. They are insisting on choosing our leaders. The American people and many in the media are different from some of their politicians.