Gee, who could have seen this coming?…
The Islamic radicals are already holding the process hostage.
Obama played down the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt yesterday.
The Muslim Brotherhood today warned that it would pull out of talks with the Mubarak government if its demands were not met.
Reuters reported, via Free Republic:
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday it could pull out of talks with the government if opposition demands were not met, including the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak who on Monday chaired a cabinet meeting.
Mubarak, 82, who refuses calls to end his 30-year-old rule before September polls, saying his resignation would cause chaos in the Arab world’s most populous nation, has tried to focus on restoring order and his government seems to be buying time.
Protesters, barricaded in a tent camp in Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, have vowed to stay until Mubarak quits and hope to take their campaign to the streets with more mass demonstrations on Tuesday and Friday.
Keen to get traffic moving around Tahrir Square, the army tried early on Monday to squeeze the area the protesters have occupied. Overnight campers rushed out of their tents to surround soldiers attempting to corral them into a smaller area.
The powerful army’s role in the next weeks is considered critical to the future of Egypt.
“The army is getting restless and so are the protesters. The army wants to squeeze us into a small circle in the middle of the square to get the traffic moving again,” protester Mohamed Shalaby, 27, told Reuters by telephone.
More… Egypt’s Christian minority fear Islamist rule in their future.