Mubarak: I want to resign, but fear chaos

Egyptian protesters trying to topple the regime of President Hosni Mubarak called on their supporters to fill every square in the capital Cairo today.

The call followed two days of street battles between the pro- and anti-government camps that marked an ugly turn in the country’s crisis.

Yesterday, gangs backing Mr Mubarak attacked journalists and human rights activists as government opponents pushed supporters out of Cairo’s main square.

And the new vice president, widely considered the first successor Mr Mubarak has designated, fuelled anti-foreign sentiment by going on state television and blaming outsiders for fomenting unrest.

“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Omar Suleiman said.

The government has accused media outlets of being sympathetic to protesters who want the president to quit now rather than serve out his term, as he has vowed to do.

Meanwhile the US was in talks with top Egyptian officials about the possibility of Mr Mubarak resigning immediately and the formation of an interim government that could prepare the country for free and fair elections later this year, American officials said.

The creation of a military-backed caretaker government in Egypt is one of several ideas being discussed as anti-Mubarak protests escalate in the streets of Cairo and other cities, the officials said.

Among those options is a proposal for Mr Mubarak to resign immediately and cede power to a transitional government run by Mr Suleiman.

White House and US State Department spokesmen would not discuss details of the discussions.

“The president has said that now is the time to begin a peaceful, orderly and meaningful transition,” said White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor. “We have discussed with the Egyptians a variety of different ways to move that process forward.”

Mr Mubarak, 82, told ABC television in an interview that he was fed up and wanted to resign. But he said he could not for fear the country would sink into chaos and was very unhappy about the two days of clashes in central Tahrir Square.

“I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other,” he was quoted as saying.

The violence that had been concentrated in Tahrir spread around the city of 18 million, with a new wave of arson and looting.

Soldiers, mainly protecting government buildings and important institutions, remained passive as they have since replacing police on the streets almost a week ago. Few uniformed police have been seen around the city in that time and protesters claim some have stripped off their uniforms and mixed in with the gangs of marauding thugs.

Pro-government mobs beat foreign journalists with sticks and fists yesterday. The Committee to Protect Journalists said 24 reporters were detained in 24 hours, including representatives of The Washington Post and The New York Times. Twenty-one journalists were assaulted, including two with Fox News.

One Greek journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver, and a photographer was punched in the face, his equipment smashed. The Arabic news network Al-Arabiya pleaded for the army to protect its offices and journalists and Al-Jazeera said four of its correspondents were attacked. The BBC’s foreign editor said security forces had seized the network’s equipment in a hotel to stop it broadcasting.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs condemned reports of “systematic targeting” of journalists and the State Department described it as a “concerted campaign to intimidate”.

Human rights activists were also targeted. Military police stormed the offices of an Egyptian rights group as activists were meeting and arrested at least 30, including two from the London-based Amnesty International, Amnesty spokesman Tom Mackey said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said one of its activists was also among those arrested.

The crisis that began on January 25 when protesters launched the biggest challenge yet to Mr Mubarak’s 30-year rule has grown perilous. The day after Mr Mubarak refused to step down, thousands of his supporters attacked anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square, where they had held a peaceful vigil for days.

The Mubarak supporters started fierce battles with firebombs, machetes and chunks of pavement that lasted throughout the night and all day yesterday.

At least eight people have been killed and about 900 injured in the two days of fighting around Tahrir.

Under an onslaught of international condemnation for Wednesday’s assault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters, the government offered more concessions to the protesters, but that did nothing to calm the fury.

The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force the president out by today.

The Facebook page that started the protest movement said supporters should gather at noon on all Egyptian squares “so that we can put the last nail in the regime’s coffin, and declare the victory of the January 25 revolution”.

The top US military officer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, said today he had spoken to his military counterparts in Egypt and was reassured they had no intention of firing on their own people.

An exodus of foreigners, meanwhile, continued for another day with the United Nations evacuating much of its staff. The vice president said one million foreign tourists had fled the country.