Page 26 - Inside Egypt News Today

Were not doing this for us, were doing this for the generations that come after us so that they can taste freedom and democracy. >> governor romney, the chant from tahrir square in cairo tonight was "freedom, may god make it happen, may it be tonight." president mubarak says hes going to step down, but not for quite a few months. is that reaction tenable, given the situation on the ground? >> thats something his people will have to decide. the real objective has been met, and that is that the pe...

Process that closes off the people to have the kind of freedoms theyve been arguing for. >> nobody saw this coming in egypt. we kind of guessed tunisia, that would unravel, but egypt came out of nowhere, really. were you shocked? what do you thinks going to happen now? it seems to me mubarak can say what he like, but the people are marching and they want him gone now. >> i think when mr. ben ali was removed in tunisia, there was the general alert that there was going to be reaction and people ta...

Protest, for one where theres really no organized single group putting it together, there is an amazing amount of security and protection. to get into the square, you have to pass through level after level of security, youre frisked, you have to present your i.d. and in fact, someone very close to me as i entered today was found with a gun. they were grabbed by a bunch of volunteers, a protective cordon was formed around him so he was not beaten up, and then he was taken over to the soldiers. fo...

So israel, having got somebody who they know is very much on side with the peace process, now thats going to be replaced by uncertainty. whether it turns out to be better for israel, better for the region, we just cant tell at the moment. thats why its perfectly natural, by the way, for the american administration, the british and others and people like myself say, yes we have been to have change, that change should result in free and fair elections, but its a process of transition thats got to ...

Middle east peace envoy, do you believe that peace is now more or less likely the way things stand today? >> its extremely difficult to tell. the one thing i do know is that peace between the israelis and the palestinians is of huge importance to the stability of the region, but also to those modernizing and forward looking forces in the region triumphing over those who would take the region and the world backwards. so whatever the next few months brings, weve got to carry on working flat out on...

Be little presence of islamic fundamentalism in egypt, on the streets in these protests. what ive been told is that for a more worrying to the white house would be if a similar situation were to arise in somewhere like the yemen, where that could very quickly deteriorate into another afghanistan. what would you say to that? >> well, i think its true. i dont think theres a majority for the muslim brotherhood in egypt. on the other hand, what youve always got to watch is that they are extremely we...

According to the democracy that we would -- the system of democracy that we would espouse. thats the first element. so youve got that elite at the top of the country. youve secondly got a group of people that want democracy, that are urging for open democratic change that in a way that we would respond to and we would sympathize with. the third element is islamist groups that would take the situation in a completely different direction. so its perfectly natural of us for those on the outside to ...

Time coming, but at some point, its inevitable. and the question is really where it ends up now. because there is a process of change that, i think, will affect the whole of the region. people want a different system of government. theyre going to get it. the question is, then, what emerges from that? and in particular, i think the key challenge for us, really, is how do we help partner this process of change and help manage it in such a way that what comes out of it is open-minded, fair, democr...

Inside egypt, and i have many egyptian friends, its clear that theres been a huge desire for change. so where you stand on president mubarak very much depends on, you know, whether youve been dealing with him as an outsider on something like the peace process or whether youre somebody, i think, whos obviously an aspiring mass there who are wanting now the same types of freedom and changes that people have elsewhere. >> isnt the problem, as i see it, the reason so many are marching in protest in ...

Between the israelis and the palestinians. but its also precisely about making sure that dictators like saddam cant stay in power. >> when you see regime change happening in the way were seeing in egypt, where its driven from the bottom up, through the people, and its based on their particular concerns about their quality of life and they resent their government and they want them out and theyre driving reform through the streets, does a part of you wish that perhaps youd waited in somewhere lik...