Western leaders struggle to find response to Mubarak's speech

Western leaders tried to provide a response on Friday to events in Egypt and Mubarak's television address. United States President Barack Obama gave no immediate reaction but was holding an emergency meeting with his national security team.

Reuters

In earlier comments US officials had suggested that they expected Mubarak to step down, while Obama told Americans they were “witnessing history unfold”.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU was ready to help Egypt build democracy that would help “underpin stability”.

“What we were expecting was that we were waiting to hear from President Mubarak. It was not for us - we never deal in the hypothetical - we never put the cart before the horse. We were basically waiting to hear,” Darren Ennis, Ashton’s spokesperson, told RFI.

“We issued a statement just about an hour before the statement by President Mubarak in which Catherine Ashton set out what she had discussed with Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit where she reiterated the European Union’s position to him, and also, in particular, said that any transformation will be fully supported by the European Union, there are a number of packages which we will look into to help support that transformation,” he added.