Kerry statement on Eqypt

[karynnj]

"I call on the Egyptian government and security forces to exercise restraint in dealing with protesters and to respect the human rights of its citizens to seek greater participation in their own government. The Egyptian government also should immediately restore communications and access to social networking sites," he said.

"I hope the people of Egypt will continue to remember the lessons and legacy of peaceful protesters from Gandhi to Dr. King and to exercise their right to be heard in that tradition, which will rally peaceful people everywhere in solidarity," Kerry added.

Still, he stressed, it's "not with rubber bullets and water cannons that order will be restored" in the four-day-old street protests in which demonstrators have been clashing with and even chasing down riot police.

"President Mubarak has the opportunity to quell the unrest by guaranteeing that a free and open democratic process will be in place when the time comes to choose the country’s next leader later this year," Kerry said.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/140929-kerry-to-egyptians-protest-like-gandhi

Nice statement!

[Luftmensch067]

1. I listened to the news about this all morning

And, based on what I heard, I think this is the perfect thing to have said. Hoping and praying that this kind of urging will be listened to...

[karynnj]

2. Same here,

I visited Egypt back in the mid 1990s. My sister's family was then living in Egypt - which they did for 5 years. My brother in law was working on a contract from USAID. My niece, who is a sophomore in college has kept in contact with many kids that she went to school with then. She and her brother attended the British school, where many of the Egyptian elite sent their kids. As a graduation from high school present, her dad took her back to Egypt when he visited for a project - leaving her with some of her old friends for a week as he worked.

Her comment to a my daughter putting up a picture of people protesting by praying in the streets ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jan/28/egypt-protests-live-updates ) was that someone needed to tell Mubarak can't jail the entire country. What is interesting is that this protest seems to span the gamut of Egyptian society. I guess you can't suppress a country for 30 years without it at some point being too difficult to control.

I liked the tone of Kerry's much better than Clinton's though both were asking both sides to avoid violence. Now, I ALWAYS like Kerry's wording better, but the things in his statement that I didn't see in Clinton's were:

- using Ghandi and King as examples of peaceful AND SUCCESSFUL protesting praises protests like the one my daughter linked to - which deserve praise. With King, it pointed to a time where the US needed change - and there is no need to point out who are President is. ( Both Ghandi and King were people who might resonate in the more religious Middle East.)

- it ends with a call for free elections - and there is already supposed to be an election this year - the key is that it really has to be free. The best thing Mubarak might be able to do - if it is not to late - is to extend an olive branch and work with the protesters on their issues and let them be involved in the process of setting up the election - maybe earlier than scheduled.

[wisteria]

3. Sen. Kerry made an appearance on CNN today, here is the video.

I always feel calmer when I hear Senator Kerry speak about these matters. He seems so much in control.

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/28/john-king-usa-sen-kerry-on-egypt-and-the-mubarak-dynasty/

[Inuca]

4. And looked so good too :-) n/t

[karynnj]

7. even in the bad lighting!

You can tell how not true the lighting was because we have seen hundreds of pictures of Kerry in his Navy coat and blue scarf - here they look Black and green. Now, of course, he could have bought a new coat and scarf in black and green - that otherwise look the same, but it is more likely that the picture is too yellow. (That would also make his shirt really light blue. Not sure what that means for his tie - a truer red? It also made his face look more yellow than normal.

(I can't believe I wrote this - but it was weird.)

[Inuca]

8. I actually admired the green scarf :-)

PS: we are so shallow :-)

[wisteria]

11. I also thought the colors were off. Senator Kerry doesn't usually wear colors like those. n/t

[karynnj]

6. Nice interview - and I think he has gone further than anyone here in

calling for the Mubaraks to not try to stay in power.

[ProSense]

9. JK's statement was spot on and

the interview was even better, especially where he talked about Mubarak's son and a credible election process.

[Mass]

10. You'd be surprised how it is seen in some quarters (The Hill + Fox)

Title on Fox nation

http://nation.foxnews.com/sen-john-kerry/2011/01/29/kerry-premature-threaten-cutting-egypts-aid

Kerry Splits with Obama on Egypt

(Really. It did not strike me as fundamentally different from what Obama said)

and from the same on The Hill

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/141061-kerry-premature-to-threaten-cutting-egypts-aid

Kerry: Premature to threaten cutting Egypt's $1.3B aid

(At the link, you can see the CNN title that basically said what you say in the post).

[karynnj]

13. It's strange how they focus on the foreign aid comment, rather than the

bigger difference of signaling that they need demopcracy and free elections.

Here is Foreign Policy - which focused on that. I suspect that JK may be saying what Obama et al might be saying privately.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/28/clinton_calls_for_openness_and_restraint_kerry_calls_for_democracy

[Inuca]

5. Just saw this

pop up on the Guradian's excellent pngoing coverage the Karyn also linked to above http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/29/egypt-protests-government-live-blog

The US senator John Kerry, who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, said Mubarak's dismissal of his government failed to address the Egyptian people's concerns and called on the president to go further to deal with their frustrations.

"I think that we have to see how things move today and, obviously, the key here is for President Mubarak to respond to the needs of his people in a way that is more directly connected to their frustrations, much more so than apparently yesterday's speech succeeded in doing," the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee told AP.

"I think he's got to speak more to the real issues that people feel. Dismissing the government doesn't speak to some of those challenges."

[wisteria]

12. Oh, I agree. I know I am in the minority here and in the media it seems, but I would like to see

Murbarak stay in power until the next elections-fair elections with a new leader if this is what the people want. I don't want to see him thrown out this way. I am real concerned about who emerges as a new leader and what that does for our relationship in the Middle East.
Can anyone answer me why this is happen now?

[karynnj]

14. Here's a long transcript of his CNN interview

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/28/john-king-usa-sen-kerry-on-egypt-and-the-mubarak-dynasty/#comments