Citing Stability Concerns, Kerry Calls For Murbarak To Step Down

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is urging Egyptian President Hosni Murbarak to step down, arguing that such a move is vital to his Egypt’s security.

“Egyptians have moved beyond his regime, and the best way to avoid unrest turning into upheaval is for President Mubarak to take himself and his family out of the equation,” Kerry wrote in an op-ed piece in Tuesday’s edition of the New York Times.

Kerry added that Murbarak needs to do more than provide open elections, but also pledge that neither he nor his son, Gamal Murbarak, will run in the country’s presidential elections later this year.

Egypt has been overrun with protests for over a week. In recent days, members of the Obama administration have said that the country needs to undergo an “orderly transition,” but stopped short of explicitly calling for regime change.