Cairo, Feb. 4: Egyptian demonstrators held a massive “Departure Day” show of force on Friday aimed at ousting the President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, as the United States and Europe indicated he should step down now.
Protesters held up signs reading “Now!”, massing around 1lakh in the largest gathering since the quarter-million who rallied on Tuesday. They labelled Friday’s rally the “Day of Leaving,” the day they hoped Mr Mubarak will go.
However, the President, said in a US television interview that he wants to leave office, but fears there will be chaos if he resigns now.
The beleaguered Egyptian leader said he was “fed up with being the President and would like to leave office now, but cannot... for fear that the country would sink into chaos,” the ABC News’ Ms Christiane Amanpour said, after interviewing Mr Mubarak.
He also said his government was not responsible for the violence in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and blamed the Opposition Muslim Brotherhood.
“I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other,” Ms Amanpour quoted Mr Mubarak as saying.
Meanwhile, a new pro-government rally took place at the same time in the upscale Mohandeseen neighbourhood of the capital, but it was attended by dozens of people rather than the tens of thousands at Tahrir Square.
The defence minister, Mr Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, visited the square to appeal to demonstrators to give up their protest in the light of Mr Mubarak’s pledge earlier this week not to seek re-election.
“The man (Mubarak) told you he won’t stand again,” Mr Tantawi told the protesters flanked by troops. He urged Opposition leaders, including the supreme guide of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Mr Mohammed Badie, to join talks with the government on political transition.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Mr Badie reiterated the Opposition’s position that there could be no talks until Mr Mubarak stepped down.
“We stand with all the political forces supporting dialogue with whoever wants to implement reforms in the country after the departure of this unjust, corrupt tyrant,” he told the channel.