THE EGYPTIAN vice-president, Omar Suleiman, met representatives of opposition groups yesterday and agreed to some of the secondary demands of the thousands who gathered at Tahrir Square for a 13th day of protests against the 30-year reign of president Hosni Mubarak.
Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama said last night that he believed Egypt is “not going to go back to what it was”, and that the time for change is now.
In a television interview with Fox News, Mr Obama said only Mr Mubarak knows what he is going to do in the face of daily protests, but it is clear that Egyptians want free and fair elections. Mr Obama said he believed the opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood is only one faction in Egypt and that it did not have majority support, but it was well-organised and some strains of its ideology were anti-American.
Earlier, Mr Suleiman agreed to release those detained since anti-Mubarak demonstrations began, allow press freedom and the setting up of a judicial commission to study constitutional reforms allowing a wide range of candidates to stand for president in the election due in September.
He did not, however, accept the main demand of the pro-democracy demonstrators: Mr Mubarak’s immediate resignation. He also refused to promise an early lifting of the state of emergency imposed by the embattled president in 1981.
In Tahrir (Liberation) Square, thousands of Egyptians gathered in festive mood, chanting: “No to Mubarak, no to Gamal [Mubarak], no to Suleiman. Leave, leave, leave.”
Among those who held talks with Mr Suleiman were followers of the reform movement led by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, leftist and secular parties and the Muslim Brotherhood.
During this encounter, the first since mass demonstrations began two weeks ago, the government pledged to tackle corruption and prosecute internal security officers who withdrew the police from the streets of Egypt’s cities, leaving them open to looting and arson.
The government promised not to disrupt internet and mobile phone services and the sides decided to establish a committee of independent figures to ensure implementation of the government’s promises.
“The regime is retreating. It is making more concessions every day. We are determined to press on until our number one demand [the resignation of Mr Mubarak] is met,” said Khaled Abdul-Hamid, a representative of the youth movement steering the countrywide protests.
Despite the positive atmosphere generated by the meeting with Mr Suleiman, a close confidante of Mr Mubarak, senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Khaled Fatouh, said the regime had not signalled “any solid changes” in Egypt’s authoritarian system of government.
However, Mr ElBaradei said the negotiations were not a step toward the change protesters demanded. “The process is opaque. Nobody knows who is talking to whom at this stage,” Mr ElBaradei said.