WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday it was not enough simply to “reshuffle the deck” with a shake-up of his government and pressed him to make good on his promise of genuine reform.
As angry protesters defied a curfew in Egyptian cities, President Barack Obama and his administration kept up pressure for Mubarak to heed their calls for democratic change and take seriously a US threat to review massive aid to Cairo.
Obama is performing a delicate balancing act, trying to avoid abandoning Mubarak — an important US strategic ally of 30 years — while supporting protesters who seek broader political rights and demand his ouster. But Washington has limited options to influence the situation.
“The Egyptian government can’t reshuffle the deck and then stand pat,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said in a message on Twitter.com after Mubarak fired his government but made clear he had no intention of stepping down.
“President Mubarak’s words pledging reform must be followed by action,” he said, echoing Obama’s appeal on Friday for Mubarak to embrace a new political dynamic.
Crowley’s comments, part of an increasingly assertive US stance, came just before Mubarak picked intelligence chief and confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president. It is a post Mubarak had never filled in three decades of rule, and many interpreted the move as edging toward an eventual handover of power.
There was no immediate US reaction to the appointment of Suleiman, who has played a prominent role in Egypt’s relations with the United States and its ally Israel.
