AMERICAN REACTION:PRESIDENT BARACK Obama delivered a vibrant homage to the bravery, perseverance and non-violence of the Egyptian people, quoting the great American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King: "There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom."
In a 6½ minute statement delivered hours after Hosni Mubarak resigned, Mr Obama said it was a privilege to witness history, and that Egypt will never be the same.
“There will be difficult days ahead,” he predicted. “But I am confident the people of Egypt can find the answers and do so peacefully and constructively and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks.”
Saying that “the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind” at the back of change, Mr Obama promised that “the US will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt”.
He also believed that the “ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that the young people of Egypt have shown in recent days” could be harnessed to improve the economy and maintain Egypt’s role in the region and the world.
“Egypt has played a pivotal role in human history for over 6,000 years,” Mr Obama said. “But over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights.”
The US leader praised the example of parents carrying their children on their shoulders in demonstrations, of protesters who chanted “we are peaceful”, of soldiers who did not fire on the crowd, doctors and nurses who cared for the wounded and Muslims and Christians who prayed together.
“This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied,” Mr Obama said.
“Egyptians have inspired us. They have done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of non-violence, not terrorism, not mindless killing, but non-violence; moral force that bent the arc of history towards justice once more.”
In an opinion piece published in yesterday's New York Times, and written before Mr Mubarak stepped down, the Nobel laureate and Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei pointed out the irony of the Egyptian revolution. "The US and its allies have spent the better part of the last decade, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and countless lives, fighting wars to establish democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan," he wrote. The youth of Cairo, "armed with nothing but Facebook and the power of their convictions, have drawn millions into the street to demand a true Egyptian democracy."
Mr Obama noted that Tahrir, the square where the revolution took hold, means liberation. “It is a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom. Forever more it will remind us of the Egyptian people; what they did, of the things that they stood for and how they changed their country, and in doing so, changed the world.”
President Obama’s speech was carried live by state television in Egypt. The Obama administration was fortunate that Mr Mubarak’s departure occurred when it did, because it was becoming increasingly untenable for the White House to attempt to appear neutral in the showdown between the dictator and his people.
Earlier, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, also called Mr Mubarak’s departure a “historic moment”. Ban was criticised last week by Egypt’s UN mission for what it considered outspoken comments.
“I respect what must have been a difficult decision [by Mubarak], taken in the wider interests of the Egyptian people,” Mr Ban said.
The fall of Mr Mubarak occurred exactly 32 years to the day after the fall of the Shah’s regime in Iran.