Hillary Clinton: Egyptian Government is Still Our Partner

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged the Egyptian government to scale back its violent crackdown against protesters -- but she maintained that the United States wishes to maintain its partnership with the Egyptian government. Protests erupted this week against the rule of the country's authoritarian and U.S.-allied president, Hosni Mubarak.

"We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protestors, and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain security forces," Clinton said at a press conference today.

"At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully," she added.

Throngs of protesters in Cairo are defying a nighttime curfew Mubarak ordered earlier in the day in the face of angry protests against his 30-year rule. The Associated Press reports that Mubarak just extended the curfew nationwide - a sign that the government has been unable to impose its will on the masses. Protesters have reportedly stormed government buildings and fires have started in a number of cities.

Clinton said today that in order preserve Egypt's long-term stability, as well as the "progress and prosperity its people deserve," the Egyptian government must engage immediately with its citizens to implement economic, political and social reforms. She said that the United States has raised this issue with Egypt and other nations in the region repeatedly.

Still, she acknowledged that the Egyptian government has been a partner of the United States on a "range of issues." Bloomberg reports that Egypt is the fourth largest recipient of American aid after Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel, based on the State Department's budget request for the current fiscal year. Egypt received more than $1.5 billion in aid from the U.S. last year.

Masked Egyptian demonstrators holds their national flag as they stand next to a burning riot police vehicle in Cairo on January 28, 2011.

/ MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images

"We want to continue to partner with the Egyptian government and the Egyptian people," she said.

The protesters were encouraged after pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei returned to the country Thursday night. He and other protesters were sprayed with water cannons during their Noon prayers, the AP reports, and some of ElBaradei's supporters were beaten with batons. ElBaradei himself has been placed under house arrest.

"These protests underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian society, and the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away," Clinton said today.

She also urged Egyptian authorities "to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications." Internet and cell phone services in the country have reportedly been shut off.

"The Egyptian government has a real opportunity in the face of this very clear demonstration of opposition to begin a process that will truly respond to the aspirations of the people of Egypt," Clinton said. "That moment needs to be seized, and we hope that it is."

President Obama assembled his national security team today for a 40-minute briefing on the situation in Egypt.

In an interview conducted on YouTube Thursday, Mr. Obama called Egypt "an ally of ours on a lot of critical issues," but added that people have the right "to express legitimate grievances."

Watch CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller on CBSNews.com's Washington Unplugged report on the White House's response to protests in Egypt:

[transparencyfirst]

The Israeli official line is that if there were free elections Egypt would become an Islamic republic like Iran. Of course, Egypt should be ruled by a secular government much like Turkey. But the hypocrisy of Israel is abhorrent. Israel does NOT have a secular government. It is a religion-ruled State and one that is arguably apartheid-like against its Arabic, Muslim, and Christian minorities. Secularizing the Middle East should be the first objective of the USA and no US taxpayer money should fund or otherwise support non-secular states or nations. Because, in essence, the US taxpayer ends up subsidizing Judaism and Islam- be it in Israel or Saudi Arabia. This activity would be ILLEGAL on US soil and should be worldwide. Stop public funding of any and all religion!

[noloyalisti]

Well yeah, any right wing corporation run, repressive, anti-democratic dictatorship appears to be a friend of our right wing corporation run government.

[noloyalisti]

Well YEAH, that's who we support, right wing anti-democratic regimes. In fact, we don't actually LIKE democracy we just say we do. If we don't like a democratically elected regime (like in Palestine, Venezuela, and other South and Central American countries, we just take them out with our right wing brothers. That is American History 101 for the second half of the 20th century.

[lucifersshadow]

Mubarak has proven he is a dictator . . . supporting him is just plain hipocracy.

[noloyalisti]

You can see what side even our Democrats are.

[Scimajor]

Commenters:

Spin it any way you want to but unless you have had your head under a rock for the past several decades you'd realize that Egypt is our most important ally in the middle east. You can redneck your reasoning all you like but we need them.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,
la seule fa?on d'?viter ce genre de d?boire, c'est d'aller vers ce peuple,
?tre ? l'?coute du peuple

......................
the only way to avoid such disappointment is to go to this people, be listening the people "simply"
au revoir

[rmoore17]

We give billions in foreign aid to Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, and no telling how many other countries in that part of the world. It's wasted because all we get are despots for leaders who only want to keep themselves in power with that aid. Just think how fast we could reduce our deficit if we discontinued foreign aid to every nation and keep it in the U.S.A.

[xila654]

Hillary Clinton is clearly out of touch with the reality on the ground, she chose a bad time to accept a job in government. 2011 is going to be a terrible year for the USA and its puppet regimes around the world, did they really think they could keep up the charade forever?

[mari1963]

Why should we care about what is going on in Egypt? Why is it any of our business? Why does the US have to get involved in every country's troubles? Let them work it out themselves!

[sepa2]

Egypt recieved 1.5 billion in aid. Unfortunately most of it is military