CAIRO — As Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak prepared to deliver a message to his nation after at least 1 million people rallied across the country for him to step down, U.S. reports emerged that President Barack Obama urged him not to seek re-election.
Al Arabiya
television said late Tuesday that Mubarak would announce he won't run in elections scheduled in September. There was no official confirmation. Al Arabiya also said Vice President Omar Suleiman had started meetings with representatives of parties.
Sources told NBC News that Mubarak would offer "a good solution."
The New York Times reported that former U.S. ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner delivered Obama's message. The Times said Wisner told Mubarak that Obama was not sending a blunt demand to step aside now, but offering firm counsel that he should make way for a reform process that would culminate in free and fair elections
in September for a new Egyptian leader.
The back channel message, authorized directly by Obama, appeared to tip the administration beyond the delicate balancing act it has performed in the last week — resisting calls for Mubarak to step down even as it has called for an “orderly transition” to a more politically open Egypt, the Times said.
News of the message came as Cairo's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square was jammed with at least a quarter-million people, ranging from lawyers and doctors to students and jobless poor, the crowd spilling into surrounding streets. Crowd estimates varied widely. Many defied a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces.
Al Arabiya
Sources told NBC News that Mubarak would offer "a good solution."
The New York Times reported that former U.S. ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner delivered Obama's message. The Times said Wisner told Mubarak that Obama was not sending a blunt demand to step aside now, but offering firm counsel that he should make way for a reform process that would culminate in free and fair elections
The back channel message, authorized directly by Obama, appeared to tip the administration beyond the delicate balancing act it has performed in the last week — resisting calls for Mubarak to step down even as it has called for an “orderly transition” to a more politically open Egypt, the Times said.
News of the message came as Cairo's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square was jammed with at least a quarter-million people, ranging from lawyers and doctors to students and jobless poor, the crowd spilling into surrounding streets. Crowd estimates varied widely. Many defied a government transportation shutdown to make their way from rural provinces.
