they represent. i think as you heard the president say in his statement, there will be many bumps along this road, as this transition continues toward free and fair elections. so i don t doubt, as i said, there will be there s much work to be done. this was this is the beginning of that process, not the end of it. does the president have any concerns as that process unfolds about the unknowns, about the defensive instability right now? i think partnership that we ve had with the people and the nation of egypt for 30 years has brought regional stability and has brought peace, particularly between the countries of egypt and israel. and i think it s important that the next dpogovernment of egypt we ve said in here many times recognize the accords that have
opportunity as some have already said for a military coup, but hopefully they will be as wise and judicious post-revolution as they have been pre-revolution. because what, it s been six, seven hours ago, we heard the vice president, omar suleiman, say that mubarak is stepping down. he s no longer the president and handing over all oh, all authority to the egyptian military. are they ready for this egyptian military? do you know how to run a country? well, they will certainly understand that the first thing they should do is find a committee, as fareed zakaria said, or a person or a political representative to do the political heavy lifting. the military is designed to maintain stability inside of egypt, defend their borders. they are they are a respected organization within egypt. they want to maintain that respect, not only today but for years to come, and i think they recognize that to maintain that respect, maintain their honor, they need to be part of the process, that orderl
transitions from the mubarak regime to a secular, democratic, pluralistic regime in the future, and they can be a part of it, they can be the custodians, but i don t think they want to be the actual political leaders. so you don t see this as a soft military coup as some have called it? i don t see it as a soft military coup at all. in fact, i think the military reluctantly is standing up to their obligations to maintain stability inside of egypt and will work as hard as they can to make sure that the nation of egypt moves through this period in a peaceful, democratic, pluralistic way, orderly transition that we all want to see. now a lot of our viewers know that the u.s. military relationship with egypt is strong. a lot of egyptians come here to the united states for training, whether in the air force, the navy or the army or whatever, and that there s a significant u.s. number of trainers in egypt working with the egyptian military. what a lot of them probably don t know or don
leader hosni mubarak. fareed zakaria joins us live from new york. it s been five envelope hours since we heard from vice president suleiman that hosni mubarak was stepping down. now we can look at this situation a little bit perhaps with a colder head. what next in the coming days for egypt, if a read? i think the most important thing that needs to happen that it becomes very clear that this is a transition of military rule. what does it take to make that clear? i think you need some kind of committee to amend or rewrite the egyptian constitution. you would need some kind of process which would put in place elections, three months, six months, a year, both for the national assembly and the presidency. presumably you would need to have the sequels correctly so first you have a referendum on a constitution and then you have the election and then the national assembly and then the
egypt. we stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary and asked for to pursue a credible transition to a democracy. the president a short time ago there talking about the situation in egypt, an historic day. the longtime autocratic leader of egypt hosni mubarak stepping down. it was announced by the vice president omar suleiman. mubarak transferring power to the military leadership in egypt. many egyptians hoping that this will lead to true democracy in their country. it is now four plus seven, five minutes past 11:00 p.m. in egypt right now. nic robertson is still in tahrir square. what are people around you saying? are they still has the mood sort of lessened a bit? have people started going home, or is it still party central there in tahrir square tonight, nic? reporter: hala, it s very hard to hear you down here, but people if i can say it are