This is going to get ugly.
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak has announced he is will not stand down until elections have been held. In a televised address, the president said he refused to be the subject of foreign pressure.
He said those responsible for violence will be punished. He promised to scrap emergency laws as soon as the situation in Egypt is stable.Rumours spread earlier this evening that the resignation of the president was possibly imminent after Egypt’s military announced earlier it was taking measures to preserve the nation and aspirations of the people. The Higher Army Council held an ongoing meeting without President Mubarak throughout the afternoon to assess the situation.
Speaking in Michigan, President Barack Obama said earlier “We are watching history unfold.” In the most direct endorsement of the movement for a change of regime in Egypt so far, President Obama said, “America will continue to do everything that we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy in Egypt.”
The 82-year-old president had come under increasing pressure to end his 30-year rule, following more than two weeks of widespread protests against poverty, repression and corruption.
On Thursday, pro-democracy protesters demonstrated outside Cairo’s parliament building. During the evening, hundreds of thousands of elated protesters have poured into Tahrir Square, which has been at the heart of the demonstrations in the past two weeks. Significantly Egyptian state television began showing footage of the demonstrations on Tahrir Square on Thursday evening shortly before Mubarak’s speech.
On Friday, protesters are planning to move demonstrations to the state radio and television building on “The Day of Martyrs” dedicated to protesters who have been killed. The United Nations says as many as 300 people may have been killed since the demonstrations began.
Update: As expected.
Tahrir Square crowd furious at Mubarak speech — AFP
Protesters in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square reacted with fury on Thursday when President Hosni Mubarak failed to announce his immediate resignation, demanding the army join them in revolt.
Hundreds of protesters took off their shoes and brandished them at the screen on which they had seen Mubarak’s speech, an insult in Arab societies, and others chanted: “Down with Mubarak, leave, leave!”
Others called for an immediate general strike and demanded of the army, which has deployed large numbers of troops around the protest: “Egyptian army, the choice is now, the regime or the people!”