WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday welcomed the peaceful transition of power in Egypt with the resignation of longtime President Hosni Mubarak. “The people of Egypt have spoken. Their voices have been heard. And Egypt will never be the same,” he said.
In brief remarks in the Grand Foyer of the White House, the president noted that it was “not the end of Egypt’s transition, it’s a beginning.” He said that many important questions remain to be resolved and difficult times lie ahead.
The Egyptian military, he said, will have to “ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people.” He said that means lifting Egypt’s hated 30-year-old police powers laws, revising the constitution and enacting other safeguards to “make this change irreversible” and set the path for free and fair elections.
