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UK calls for restraint from Egypt army

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Feb 11, IRNA -- British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday it was “very important that the security authorities, the government respect the right to peaceful protest' in Egypt.

'The Army have said many times they would not use force against protesters. We expect them to hold to that and also call on protestors to protest in a peaceful way,' Hague said in his latest statement on the continuing uprisings.

His call came after the Egyptian military offered its support for President Hosni Mubarak’s latest defiant message to stay in office to oversee a transition to democracy, despite continuing protests for him to step down immediately.

'Mubarak spoke partly about Egypt’s international reputation last night and one of the things that damaged that reputation were some of the scenes we saw last week of violence against protestors. I urge the Egyptian authorities to respect the right to peaceful protest,” Hague said.

He also called for clarity in the Egyptian president’s statement, saying that he spoke partly about transferring some power to vice president Omar Suleiman but that it was “quite hard to work out what powers are being transferred.”

“It's not clear on the ground there what is happening and what is being proposed and that isn't helping the political situation. They need to show that there is a credible, real, comprehensive change in clear and unambiguous language,' the British minister said.

He also spoke of there being not enough trust in the situation “because the crowds in Egypt have wrung the concessions out of the Government bit by bit rather than these being presented at the beginning as a clear way forward.”

“It does underline the need for in our opinion, one of the things that we’ve called for all along, a more broadly based representative Government so that people would be able to see that those in authority were actually people drawn from a wider spread of opinion rather than from the ruling party of the last thirty years,” Hague said.

“Now we say that with all respect to the sovereignty of Egypt. We are not, and we must not meddle in the affairs of Egypt, but we do think that’s the sort of thing that would help to calm this situation and show people that there is a credible and irrevocable way forward.'

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30239473