leave in the short term? i can t define it for you because they won t define it for me. i don t know they have a definition of what it means. they would like in a matter of week to step aside if, and this is a huge if, if l tl is a stable government in place. the white house says a lot of information it s getting is sometimes murky and conflicting. let s not understate the importance of the momentment if president mubarak is saying he won t be a candidate and he s made clear his son is not a candidate, that is a closing in a very, very important chapter in egyptian history. leave as lot of questions, though. thanks, john. we ll be getting more as we continue to follow this story. still waiting for the announcement to happen. as john was saying, the notion that gamal mubarak would have return, that was out of here weeks ago. with the transitional government, what would the
well aware of that. he have to develop a relationship between civil society and the people, that is, the people in the street and the government, and i think it s for that reason that it s very obvious that this is not an iconic moment. it is president mubarak saying that egypt will remain a strong bastion for his friends in egypt. what he said, he hasn t said he ll leave the country by any stretch of the imagination or ever, in fact. do you think that s going to be enough? well, i don t think that the crowd is going to turn away that easily. i think it s going to be democracy as a process rather than democracy as a state. i think that external influences have not been helpful, quite honestly. i mean the israelis asking the world to curb its criticism of egypt and its president. however well intended that may
he s the secretary-general of the arab league, and not an uninterested party. he was also foreign minister in president mubarak s government for ten years, and i believe, sir, you ve suggested at times in the recent past that you d be prepared to step in, if indeed it was needed. firstly, let s just get your response to what you ve seen and heard out of egypt this evening. amr moussa, your reaction to what you ve seen in cairo this evening and heard from president mubarak? well, the reaction is very clear. this is a very important step that the president has announced now, that he is not going to run again. that he will be done six months from now, seven months from now and the constitution will be amended to limit the duration of the presidency, of any presid t
basic. preferred. at meineke i have options on oil changes. and now i get free roadside assistance with preferred or supreme. my money. my choice. my meineke. this story keeps developing. egypt, the protests and the possible announcement by hosni mubarak that he will not stand again for president. we ve got the story covered from all over. joining us now, longtime cairo bureau chief ben wedeman, also hala gorani. anderson cooper is on the line also. ben, i ve got to start with you, my friend. your take on this, and will the presidential elections in september be enough for the people standing below you? reporter: well, certainly it represents a major stepdown. i must say that president
the activist groups or a member of one of the activist groups here who played a big role in organizing people through social media a week ago to get out on the streets, and his comment, and he said there will be a full statement tomorrow. his comment was that this is really a time-buying tactic by president mubarak, far short of what everyone is wanting, the demand that he should step down. having been to the demonstration and talked to a number of people there, one of the themes that emerged is people are concerned, very concerned about the stability at the moment, and there are people who are saying, look, there s a new government going to be formed. if we can just get the guarantee of elections coming up soon, then that will be enough. 60 days, 90 days for the elections, we can be happy with that. we need to be in a safe pair of hands. we can care on the demonstrations for a long time, but we need this safe transition, so you can see there s certainly for some people here, this is g