Protests over Egypt's Mubarak spread to US cities
From New York to San Francisco, thousands of Egyptians and their supporters demonstrated against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Meanwhile, Obama administration officials met to plan their next steps.
Demonstrators hold placards and shout slogans against Egypt President Hosni Mubarak outside the Egyptian embassy in Washington on Saturday. The United States signaled to Egypt Friday it could lose some $1.5 billion in aid if it fails to rein in security forces and allow peaceful protests, raising pressure on a key ally as demonstrations raged.
Jose Luis Magana/Reuters
As protests in Egypt went on into the fifth day, Egyptians and their supporters around the United States began demonstrating as well.
Skip to next paragraph
From New York to Washington to San Francisco, they gathered to denounce the regime of Hosni Mubarak – including his latest effort to name a new government and a new vice president, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
“It’s cosmetic action by Mubarak,” Ahmed Fathi, chairman of the Alliance of Egyptian Americans, told CNN. “We want Mubarak out, an end to his regime, a fresh start.”
Mr. Fathi was speaking outside United Nations headquarters in New York, where about 1,000 people had gathered Saturday for a day-long demonstration. Also on Saturday, several hundred protesters gathered outside the Egyptian Embassy in Washington where police had blocked off the street.
In Jersey City, N.J., Friday a crowd of 100 or so waved Egyptian flags and burned a photo of Mubarak.
“The American government has a strategic interest in Egypt, they see it as an ally in their fight against terrorism, as an island of stability in the Middle East,” Sherif Nasr, a physician who has lived in the United States for 29 years, told the New York Times. “I find it very disheartening that they insist the regime is stable, when it is a regime that has no respect for human dignity.”
Such demonstrations are aimed at pressuring the Obama administration to take a harder line against the Mubarak regime, which has run Egypt for 30 years.
These comments are not screened before publication. Constructive debate about the above story is welcome, but personal attacks are not. Please do not post comments that are commercial in nature or that violate any copyright[s]. Comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence will be removed. If you find a comment offensive, you may flag it.