CAIRO (Agencies) – EgyptÂ’s President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday he would not run for the presidency again and would work in the last months of his term to allow the transfer of power as millions across the country staged protests against his rule.
Following the speech, the mammoth crowd gathered in Tahrir Square roared “We are not going, he (Mubarak) should go.”
Mubarak, in his speech, said the main priority was the stability of the nation to allow the transfer of power. He said he would seek changes to the constitution. Mubarak said he won’t seek re-election in September presidential election. “It’s a choice between chaos and stability. Speaking on state TV, Mubarak promised constitutional reform, but said he wanted to stay until the end of his current presidential term.
The president presented elections without him as the only choice between chaos and stability. “Currently the people are feared of tomorrow,” said Mubarak.
Earlier in the day, millions of people rallied across Egypt on Tuesday clamouring for President Hosni Mubarak to give up power, piling pressure on a leader who has towered over Middle East politics for 30 years to make way for a new era of democracy in the Arab nation. A sea of Egyptians took to the streets in scenes never seen before in the Arab nationÂ’s modern history, roaring in unison for President Mubarak and his new government to quit.
More than a million protesters – and perhaps as many as two million – flooded into central Cairo, turning Tahrir Square into a sea of humanity, according to CBS News TV channel.
Packed shoulder to shoulder in and around the famed Tahrir Square, the mass of people held aloft posters denouncing the president, and chanted slogans “Go Mubarak Go” and “Leave! Leave! Leave!”
Hundreds of thousands of people also took part in similar demonstrations, calling on Mubarak to step down, across other cities, including Sinai, Alexandria, Suez, Mansoura, Damnhour, Arish, Tanta, El-Mahalla el-Kubra, Ismailia and Mahalla el-Kubra.
Tens of thousands marched in Alexandria while the number of those protesting in Sinai was estimated over 250,000. “Mubarak you coward, you agent of the United States.”
Protest organisers had called for an indefinite strike to be observed across the country, the eighth day of an uprising that has claimed at least 150 lives.
Soldiers, some perched atop armoured vehicles defaced with anti-Mubarak graffiti, smiled and nodded as protesters punched the air and shouted: “The people and the army are hand in hand … down, down Hosni Mubarak.”
A couple of hundred pro-Mubarak supporters gathered near the Foreign Ministry, a little distance from Tahrir Square. “Yes to Mubarak, No to ElBaradei, No to spies in Egypt,” they shouted, their small number serving to highlight his unpopularity.
Mohamed ElBaradei was edging towards taking over as EgyptÂ’s interim president as support fell away from President Hosni Mubarak.
Reports from sources close to the former UN nuclear agency chief said he met senior figures from the army on Tuesday morning as protesters gathered in major cities calling for Mr Mubarak to go.
He also held a meeting with Omar Suleiman, the new vice-president, and representative of a number of opposition parties. Mr Suleiman also talked to other opposition figures.
The US ambassador, was another caller, by telephone – the United States had not confirmed any direct contact with Mr ElBaradei as late as Monday afternoon.
With the army refusing to take action against the people and support from long-time backer the US fading, the 82-year-old strongmanÂ’s days seemed numbered. His downfall after three decades could reconfigure the geopolitical map of the Middle East, with implications from Israel to oil-giant Saudi Arabia. Unrest is already stirring in other Arab countries such as Jordan and Yemen.
EgyptÂ’s opposition, embracing the banned Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians, intellectuals and others, began to coalesce around the figure of Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate for his work as head of the UN nuclear agency.
ElBaradei said on Tuesday Mubarak must leave Egypt before the reformist opposition would start talks with the government on the future of the Arab worldÂ’s most populous nation.
“There can be dialogue but it has to come after the demands of the people are met and the first of those is that President Mubarak leaves,” he told Al Arabiya television.
Gauging the numbers of protesters was difficult but Reuters reporters estimated it had hit the million-mark that activists had called for.
“Mubarak wake up, today is the last day,” they shouted in Alexandria.
Soldiers in Tahrir Square erected barbed wire barricades but made no attempt to interfere with people. Tanks daubed with anti-Mubarak graffiti stood by.
Barbed wire barricades also ringed the presidential palace, where Mubarak is believed to be hunkered down.
“We have done the difficult part. We have taken over the street,” said protester Walid Abdel-Muttaleb, 38. “Now it’s up to the intellectuals and politicians to come together and provide us with alternatives.”
Effigies of Mubarak were hung from traffic lights. The crowds included men, women and children from all walks of life, showing the breadth of opposition to Mubarak.
The demonstration was an emphatic rejection of MubarakÂ’s appointment of a new vice-president, Omar Suleiman, a cabinet reshuffle and an offer to open a dialogue with the opposition.
Analysts said behind the scenes a transition was already under way but the military top brass would want to grant Mubarak a graceful exit.
“It is possible that people might accept an interim military leader for a short period of time – although not Suleiman. But not for as long as six months,” Maha Azzam, a Middle East expert at Chatham House think tank in London. An election scheduled for September might have to be brought forward.
In Washington, a US official said American special envoy Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to Cairo, spoke with President Mubarak about the need for an orderly transition in his countryÂ’s government.
He met in Egypt with Mubarak. The New York Times reported Wisner conveyed a message from President Barack Obama that Mubarak should not run for another term in elections in September. .
Also Tuesday, the US ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, spoke to Nobel Peace laureate ElBaradei.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates spoke with Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, EgyptÂ’s defence minister. The Pentagon declined to give details about the call.
Some influential US lawmakers called for Mubarak to go, including John Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an Obama ally.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Kerry urged Mubarak to “step aside gracefully to make way for a new power structure.”
The prospect of a hostile neighbour on IsraelÂ’s western border also worries Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he hoped IsraelÂ’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt would survive any changes that took place.
But pressure on Mubarak also came from elsewhere.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Mubarak should listen to the peopleÂ’s demands. The solution to political problems lay in the ballot box, he said.
The British government said it was disappointed by the new cabinet as its members were unlikely to produce the kind of political change demanded by the countryÂ’s citizens.
Protesters were inspired in part by a revolt in Tunisia which toppled its president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14. But years of repression have left few obvious civilian leaders able to fill any gap left by MubarakÂ’s departure.
The military, which has run Egypt since it toppled King Farouk in 1952, will be the key player in deciding who replaces him. Armed forces chief of staff Sami Enan could be an acceptable leader, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood said.
Enan was a liberal who could be seen as suitable by the nascent opposition coalition, prominent overseas cleric Kamel El-Helbawy told Reuters.
“He can be the future man of Egypt,” Helbawy said.
In Geneva, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said up to 300 people may have been killed in EgyptÂ’s unrest and called for calm during protests in Cairo. He urged Egyptian authorities to ensure the police and army avoid any excessive use of force and work to protect civilians.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah of Jordan, a close US ally, Tuesday replaced his prime minister after protests over food prices and poor living conditions, naming a former premier with a military background to head the government.
“King Abdullah II designated Maruf Bakhit to form a new government to replace the government of Samir Rifai,” a palace statement said. “Bakhit’s mission is to take practical, quick and tangible steps to launch true political reforms, enhance Jordan’s democratic drive and ensure safe and decent living for all Jordanians.” Jordan’s powerful Islamist opposition said on Monday that it had started a dialogue with the state, saying that unlike the situation in Egypt, it did not seek regime change.
Opposition demands included “the resignation of the government, the amendment of the electoral law and the formation of a national salvation government headed by an elected prime minister,” a member of the Islamic Action Front’s executive council, Zaki Bani Rsheid, said.
The Islamists have also called for constitutional amendments to curb the kingÂ’s power in naming government heads, arguing that the premiership should go to the leader of the majority in parliament.
The constitution, adopted in 1952, gives the king the exclusive prerogative to appoint and dismiss prime ministers.
Despite recent government measures to pump around 500 million dollars into the economy in a bid to help improve living conditions, protests have been held in Amman and other cities over the past three weeks to demand political and economic reform.
TunisiaÂ’s popular revolt, which ousted veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has inspired dissidents across the Arab world.
Rifai, 43, formed a first government in December 2009, and reshuffled it in November 2010.
Bakhit, who was born in 1947, served as prime minister from 2005 to 2007.
He was appointed in 2005, two weeks after a triple suicide bombing against Amman hotels, claimed by Jordanian-born Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed 60 people.