White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters today that recent comments made by Egypt’s Vice President Omar Suleiman on the prospects of implementing a new government were “unhelpful.”
“Yesterday, I think Vice President Suleiman made some particularly unhelpful comments about Egypt not being ready for a Democracy, about not seeing a lift of the emergency law,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think that, in any way, squares with what those seeking greater opportunity and freedom think is a timetable for progress.”
Gibbs added that any change that takes place in Egypt “has to be tangible” and “has to be real and it has to be immediate and irreversible.” Gibbs also said that it would not be the responsibility of the United states to see that Egypt’s government is taking the appropriate steps towards a democracy.
“Whether or not the government is taking those concrete steps can’t be arbitrated by us,” he said. “That’s going to be determined by the people of Egypt.”