Mubarak To Stay Until September
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed his determination to stay in power until September.
“I said I will not nominate myself for the next presidential elections and I am committed to that,” he said in a national address late Thursday night. He said he will stay in power until September, when elections are to take place, “so that the powers will be transferred to whomever the electorate chooses in the new elections.”
Rumors had proliferated Thursday that Mubarak was set to resign after more than two weeks of protests against his 30-year autocracy.
Mubarak once again blamed outsider powers for fomenting the trouble.
“I will not accept to listen to any foreign interventions and diktats regardless of their sources and excuses,” he said.
Forces loyal to Mubarak have killed dozens in the unrest, and Mubarak said he would hold the killers accountable. As Mubarak spoke, hundreds of thousands of protesters packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square started to jeer.
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