U.S. not trying to dictate on Egypt: spokesman
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The United States is not trying to dictate anything on how Egypt should move out of the crisis engulfing the country, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Wednesday.
He was responding to criticism by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit that the U.S. is imposing its will on Egypt by dictating on how to move on through the crisis.
"We're not trying to dictate anything," Crowley said at a regular press briefing. "As we've said and emphasized many times, there will be an Egyptian solution, you know, and Egyptian actions within this orderly transition."
Since mass anti-government protests erupted on Jan. 25 in Egypt calling for free and fair elections as well as an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, U.S. President Barack Obama and other top officials have oftentimes made public calls, at first for immediate transition but days later for orderly transition.
In his latest phone call to his Egyptian counterpart Omar Suleiman on Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called for an orderly transition in Egypt that is "prompt, meaningful, peaceful, and legitimate." He demanded, among others, that the Egyptian government immediately rescind the emergency law and invite the opposition as a partner in jointly developing a roadmap and timetable for transition.
In an interview with American PBS television on Wednesday, Gheit said that "When you speak about prompt, immediate, now -- as if you are imposing on a great country like Egypt, a great friend that has always maintained the best of relationship with the United States, you are imposing your will on him."
"But it's important that, you know, what Egypt does do is seen as credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people, and it's our view that what they've put forward so far does not meet that threshold, " Crowley told reporters.
He said he does not see Biden's call for immediate repealing of the emergency law as interference, arguing that the vice president 's discussions with Suleiman "are the kinds of, you know, very specific and irreversible steps that we believe the people of Egypt are looking for."
"What we're doing is commenting on unfolding events in Egypt, consistent with both our policies and our values," he added. "We are providing our best perspective on what the government needs to do, you know, to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people."
"With all due respect to the foreign minister, he should not be amazed, if that's the word that he used, at our call for rescinding the emergency law," the spokesman argued. "We have been calling for that for years, if not decades."
Gheit told PBS that "When I read it this morning I was really amazed because right now, as we speak, we have 17,000 prisoners loose in the streets out of jails that have been destroyed. How can you ask me to sort of disband that emergency law while I'm in difficulty?"
"Give me time, allow me to have control to stabilize the nation, to stabilize the state and then we would look into the issue," the minister said.
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