Mubarak Moves to Regain Streets as Turmoil Hits Yemen
An Egyptian youth throws rocks during a clash between pro- and anti-Mubarak protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Photographer: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz discusses the protests in Egypt against President Hosni Mubarak's regime and the impact on the rest of the world. Stiglitz speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- George Magnus, a senior economic adviser at UBS AG, discusses his book “Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake The World Economy,” and the impact of the unrest in Eqypt on global markets. Magnus talks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Michele Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, discusses the outlook for the unrest in Egypt and the potential implications for the U.S. and Middle East governments. Dunne talks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Maajid Nawaz, executive director of the Quilliam Foundation, talks about the political drivers of the civil unrest in Egypt and the outlook for the situation. Nawaz speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Richard "Dick" Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, talks about the political situation in Egypt and the impact on stability in the region. Durbin, speaking with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack," also discusses today's Senate hearing on the constitutionality of the health-care law. (Source: Bloomberg)
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he won’t stand down before September elections, a concession rejected by opposition leaders and protesters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding an immediate end to his regime. Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Supporters of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak clashed in central Cairo with demonstrators demanding an end to the 30-year-reign of the president, who said yesterday he won’t step down until an election in September.
The two sides hurled rocks at each other in Tahrir Square, the focus of protests since Jan. 25. Mubarak loyalists tried to storm independent newspaper Al-Shorouk’s offices, its editor said, while al-Jazeera reported live rounds were fired. Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader and former United Nations diplomat, told the BBC the army should move in to end unrest incited by a “criminal regime” that “has to go immediately.”
“The blood of those demanding democracy is being shed on the streets of Cairo at the hands of armed gangs,” the Cairo- based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said in a statement on its website.
The UN said as many as 300 people have died in a week of protests that roiled stock, bond and oil markets and prompted President Barack Obama to tell Mubarak yesterday a transition to democracy must “begin now.” The political turmoil is spreading through the Arab world. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said today he’ll step down when his term ends in 2013. Jordan’s King Abdullah yesterday sacked his prime minister. Tunisians ousted longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month. Algeria protesters have been killed in clashes with security forces.
U.S. Condemnation
“The United States deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place in Egypt, and we are deeply concerned about attacks on the media and peaceful demonstrators,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “We repeat our strong call for restraint,” he said.
Egypt credit-default swaps rose, reversing a decline, as the clashes intensified. Bonds dropped and global depository receipts of Orascom Telecom Holding SAE fell as the country’s bourse was shut.
The cost of protecting Egyptian debt against default for five years with credit-default swaps widened 40 basis points, or 0.40 percentage points, to 382 today, according to prices from CMA, a data provider in London. The yield on the North African nation’s 5.75 percent debt due in April 2020 increased 13 basis points to 6.63 percent at 4:06 p.m. in London, according to Bloomberg composite prices.
‘No Chance’
“There is no chance Mubarak can last until September, there is too much water under the bridge,” said Rime Allaf, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at London’s Chatham House. “The protests won’t stop until he leaves or is ousted. The opposition is clear that they want the fall of the regime, not just Mubarak.”
Reports from aid agencies and charities suggest that 300 had died in the violence that began last week, including inmates killed during a prison break and probably police officers, Rupert Colville, spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said yesterday.
The president, 82, indicated yesterday the government would take steps to try to return the country to normal, including dispatching police to apprehend those responsible for arson and other illegal actions in the past week of protests.
Service providers including units of Vodafone Group Plc “returned to the Internet” at 11:29 a.m. in Cairo, Web security firm Renesys said today in a blog post. Communications had been cut off during the protests. Some banks’ automated teller machines are working, and 24,000 government employees received their salaries, state television said.
Ports Shut
All Egyptian ports are closed because of a lack of staff, though the Suez Canal is operating as normal, Inchcape Shipping Services reported today.
Concern that trade via the canal, which carries more than 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, may be disrupted by the unrest has pushed prices up almost 7 percent since Jan. 27. Crude rose 0.7 percent to $91.44 a barrel at 10 a.m. in New York.
Persian Gulf shares rose on Mubarak’s announcement of a departure date, sending Dubai’s benchmark index up the most in almost 10 months. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index of Gulf shares climbed 1.8 percent, the most since May. Most Gulf trading closed before the clashes in Cairo intensified.
Egypt “faces a choice between chaos and stability,” Mubarak said, wearing a dark blue suit and black tie and standing next to the national flag. “My first responsibility now is to restore the security and stability of the nation to achieve a peaceful transition.”
Opposition Movement
The opposition movement, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood and ElBaradei, former head of the UN atomic agency, accuses Mubarak of running a corrupt and repressive government.
In Cairo, pro-regime protesters carried banners including “We love you, Mubarak.” Some of them tried to storm the building of Al-Shorouk, where scores of journalists and workers remain trapped in the building, editor Wael Gamal said by telephone.
“There is a risk of a low-level civil war,” said Moustafa El-Husseini, author of “Egypt on the Brink of the Unknown,” said by telephone from Cairo.
The army would probably intervene to prevent such a conflict, said Barak Seener, a research fellow at the London- based Royal United Services Institute of Defence and Security Studies
“There is the potential for this to get out of hand but I think the military would step in before there was a civil war,” said Seener. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say Mubarak engineered these clashes but they feed into his narrative that he is needed for stability.”
‘Begin Now’
With presidential elections not due until September, Obama urged Mubarak to start the handover process quickly.
“An orderly transition must be meaningful, must be peaceful, and it must begin now,” Obama said at the White House after phoning Mubarak following the Egyptian leader’s speech. Directing his comments at young demonstrators calling for democracy, Obama said: “We hear your voices.”
Egypt received about $1.5 billion in U.S. assistance last year. It has been one of the biggest recipients of U.S. aid since 1979, after Egypt signed a U.S.-brokered peace treaty with Israel. Mubarak has backed efforts to encourage Arab acceptance of the Jewish state, oppose Iran’s nuclear program and isolate Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Mubarak has “no credibility” to oversee a transition and the U.S. should do whatever it can to support a shift to democracy there, including withholding financial aid if necessary, said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic chairman of the panel that controls foreign assistance, in a statement in Washington yesterday.
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