AFP
Egypt’s interim military government has signaled they do not want to change the close alliance the country has held with the United States through the three decade regime of Hosni Mubarak as the country’s constitution and parliament are dissolved.
Egypt’s ambassador to the United States appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday and affirmed that the military council charged with governing the country after Mubarak hastily resigned the presidency would remain in power until it can be “changed at a later stage.” When pressed for when the military would hand over control and lift the emergency rule now in place since the protests began the ambassador refused to predict.
The Egyptian ambassador to the United States says the Egyptian military, led by the Minister of Defense Field Marshall Mohamad Tantawi, is in charge of his country and that the post-Mubarak Egypt will continue to be a strong U.S. ally.
In an interview with “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour, Sameh Shoukry said “The [Military] Council has decided to maintain the current government of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, to be changed at a later stage.”
The government, Shoukry said, would focus on restoring security, and restructuring the police force and economic welfare. “That doesn’t preclude that the reform process would not go ahead as well,” he said.
Shoukry said that Egypt’s emergency law would be lifted, as the military had communicated, “as soon as the current conditions of protest have been terminated.”
“But when?” Amanpour pressed. “Next week? Next year?”
“They haven’t defined yet a specific timetable,” Shoukry said.
An undetermined time for the Egyptian military to rule the country is seen as favorable to the United States, who has had a strong alliance with Egypt’s top military leaders for decades, even separate from Mubarak himself, and has been lavished with billions in U.S. military aid.
The Egyptian ambassador confirmed that the military governing council wants to maintain a “close association to the United States” both now and after a civilian administration has ostensibly taken over the country.
“Will a new system in Egypt be as automatically favorable to doing what the U.S. wants, what Israel wants as the previous one,” Amanpour asked.
Shoukry said Egypt acts in its best interest and the best interests of its people.
“Can the U.S. count on the same kind of support it had before?” Amanpour asked.
“Certainly,” Shoukry said. “These issues are driven by mutual interest, by Egyptian interest and the interest remains a close association to the United States.”
With Mubarak out of the picture and the civil unrest that paralyzed the country now easing, Egypt enters a tense new period of transitional power as the military, with U.S. assistance, consolidates its grip on the country while proclaiming to adhere to the agreement that would eventually install civilian leaders to a democratically elected government and administration.
One step on the road to full transition is the dissolving of parliament and the suspension of the old Egyptian constitution, something the military government has now done.
The moves were met with approval from leaders among the protest movement, saying that the military has “definitely started to offer us what we wanted,
The military rulers that took over when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on Friday and the caretaker government also set as a top priority the restoration of security, which collapsed during the 18 days of protests that toppled the regime.
The protesters had been pressing Egypt’s ruling military council, led by Hussein Tantawi, the defence minister, to immediately move forward with the transition process by appointing a presidential council, dissolving the parliament and releasing detainees.
“They have definitely started to offer us what we wanted,” said activist Sally Touma, reflecting a mix of caution and optimism among protesters who want to see even more change, including repeal of the repressive emergency law.
Judge Hisham Bastawisi, a reformist judge, said the actions “should open the door for free formation of political parties and open the way for any Egyptian to run for presidential elections.”
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Whatever emerges from this tumult in Egypt will have legitimacy to Egyptians, because they can honestly say that it was theirs, made by them for their own purposes. The U.S. may deal equally with the new powers and the new powers’ opposition, because our thumb wasn’t on Egypt’s scales when the new leaders were chosen. We will not bet everything on a strongman and his personality cult, but on the continuing interests of Egypt and our ability to align with them.
Egypt should be the blueprint for our efforts going forward: it has chosen democracy for itself, and will accept our help when it suits Egypt. Egypt will settle its problems internally, without one party expecting us to use our guns on its behalf, against its competitors. Even if Egypt flounders and slips over the next ten years, it will still be a democracy