Barack Obama: U.S. cannot forcefully dictate how quickly Mubarak steps down

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama says he believes Egypt will not go "back to what it was" now that pro-democracy demonstrators have made known their demands for free and fair elections through nearly two weeks of continuous street protests.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on U.S. television, Mr. Obama said only Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak knows how quickly he will leave office. He said the United States cannot forcefully dictate how quickly Mr. Mubarak steps down, but he hopes a representative government will soon emerge, one that the U.S. can work with as a partner, VOA reported.

The president said the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group - is only one of many political factions in the Arab country and that it does not have majority support. He acknowledged "some strains of their ideology" are anti-American.