The standoff posed a major test for the military as protesters stepped up calls for the army to intervene against Mubarak, a former air force commander and one of its own. The military’s Supreme Council held an "important" meeting Friday morning, which was chaired by Defense Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the state news agency reported."The council will issue important statement to the people after the meeting," MENA said.
Mubarak gave most of his powers to his vice president but refused to resign or leave the country late Thursday, hours after the military made moves that had all the markings of a coup.
"We are waiting for a strong reaction from the army to Mubarak’s speech," said Mohammed Mustapha, a protest spokesman. He said "huge numbers" of protesters were expected Friday.
Organizers said protesters were already camped outside the presidential palace and buildings housing the Cabinet, parliament and state TV. They planned rallies at six separate protest locations, in addition to Tahrir Square, the center of the mass rallies that began on Jan. 25.
"We are going to camp everywhere to put more pressure on the regime," said Abdel-Rahman Samir, an organizer.
Several hundred thousand people had packed into Tahrir Square on Thursday, ecstatic with expectation that Mubarak would announce his resignation. Instead, they watched in shocked silence as he spoke, holding their foreheads in anger and disbelief. Some broke into tears. Others waved their shoes in the air in contempt. After the speech, they broke into chants of "Leave, leave, leave."
Around 2,000 protesters then marched on the state television headquarters several blocks away from Tahrir, guarded by the military with barbed wire and tanks. "They are the liars," the crowd shouted, pointing at the building, chanting, "We won’t leave, they will leave."
Prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei, whose supporters were among the organizers of the 18-day-old wave of protests, warned in a Twitter message that "Egypt will explode."
"The army must save the country now," the Nobel Peace laureate said. "I call on the Egyptian army to immediately interfere to rescue Egypt. The credibility of the army is on the line."
Another leading figure of the protest movement, Google executive Wael Ghonim, called for caution.
"The situation is complicated. I don’t want to the blood of the martyrs to be wasted and at the same time I don’t want to shed blood," he said in comments posted on Facebook. "We have really achieved significant political accomplishments in a short time but the youth’s demand of the ouster (of Mubarak) has not been accomplished."
Protesters’ hopes that Mubarak would resign had been raised Thursday when a council of the military’s top generals announced it had stepped in to secure the country, and a senior commander told protesters in Tahrir Square that all their demands would soon be met.
The military’s Supreme Council said earlier on state TV that it was in permanent session, a status that it takes only in times of war. It said it was exploring "what measures and arrangements could be made to safeguard the nation, its achievements and the ambitions of its great people." That suggested Tantawi and his generals were in charge of the country.
Courtesy - The Island
