Egypt VP, Protesters Agree on Some Reforms
Last Updated 11:20 am. ET
CAIRO - Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman met with representatives of major opposition groups for the first time Sunday - including the Muslim Brotherhood - and agreed to a number of major reforms, including allowing freedom of the press, lifting the nation's emergency laws implemented in the security crackdown, and releasing protesters detained since anti-government demonstrations began nearly two weeks ago.
However, Suleiman reportedly rejected the opposition's call for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.
The announcement came on the 13th day of mass demonstrations calling for the ouster of Mubarak, Egypt's authoritarian ruler of nearly 30 years. Mubarak has said he would not run for the presidency again in elections slated for September, but has insisted he will serve out the remaining seven months of his current term to supervise a peaceful transfer of power.
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Senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mursi said the group was sticking to the protesters' main condition that Mubarak step down.
These are the first known discussions between the government and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in years, suggesting the group could be allowed an open political role in the post-Mubarak era.
"These are clearly substantial talks. And the signs are good. The opposition has already said they were positive," said CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Warner on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "The opposition has already said they were positive and that the government has promised to come up with a road map for going forward."
Silent footage on state TV showed senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mursi seated at a large conference table along with opposition leaders and public figures. Suleiman was shown seated at the head of the table.
In Munich on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Obama administration would withhold judgment on the Brotherhood's decision to enter a dialogue with Mubarak's regime.
The decision suggests "at least they are now involved" she said but was otherwise noncommittal in an interview airing Sunday on National Public Radio.
Some opposition leaders met with Suleiman on Saturday but said there was no breakthrough.
Several state-owned newspapers that normally speak for the Mubarak regime published stories Sunday discussing proposals for the president to hand over his powers.
Al-Ahram (the most fervent pro-Mubarak newspaper in Egypt) ran an article on its front page titled, "Washington Suggesting Transitional Regime Led by Suleiman." A similar article was published in Al-Gomhuriyah.
Though there is no commentary, the mere publishing of such articles - and the absence of condemnations about foreign powers impinging on Egypt's sovereignty - suggest the idea of an Egypt without Mubarak is being considered by the regime.
The leadership of Egypt's ruling party stepped down Saturday as the military figures spearheading the transition tried to placate protesters without giving them the one resignation they demand, President Mubarak's. The United States gave key backing to the regime's gradual changes, warning of the dangers if Mubarak goes too quickly.
But protesters in the streets rejected the new concessions and vowed to keep up their campaign until the 82-year-old president steps down. Many are convinced that the regime wants to wear down their movement and enact only superficial democratic reforms that will leave its deeply entrenched monopoly on power in place.
"Make no mistake, the demonstrators, tens, hundreds of thousands of them are not going to go anywhere until they see the end of Hosni Mubarak," Palmer told CBS' Bob Schieffer.
Palmer added that meeting with the opposition might not be enough. "At this stage, that may be a symbolic victory but it will be necessary to get the people to go home."
At the focal point of the protests, Tahrir Square in central Cairo, some protesters said they had slept under army tanks ringing the plaza because of fears they would be pulled out overnight as part of a plan to evict them.
Hundreds at the square performed the noon prayers and later offered a prayer for the souls of protesters killed in clashes with security forces.
Later, Christians held a Sunday Mass and thousands of Muslims joined in.
Some of the worshippers broke down and cried as the congregation sang: "Bless our country, listen to the screams of our hearts."
"In the name of Jesus and Muhammad we unify our ranks," Father Ihab al-Kharat said in his sermon. "We will keep protesting until the fall of the tyranny," he said.
Meanwhile, a sense of normalcy began to return to the capital of some 18 million people, which has been largely closed since chaos erupted shortly after the protests began on Jan. 25.
The government opened a limited number of banks for the first time in a week, although just for three hours. Long lines formed outside banks in Cairo's downtown area and in the wealthy neighborhood of Zamalek.
Also in Zamalek, home to many foreign embassies, several food outlets opened for the first time since Jan. 25. Pizza delivery boys checked their motorbikes. Employees at a KFC restaurant wiped down tables. Hairdressers and beauty salons called their patrons to let them know they were reopening.
Traffic also was back to near regular levels and more stores reopened across Cairo, including some on the streets leading to the central Tahrir Square - signals many hoped would ease enormous economic losses. Protesters greeted some store owners with flowers.
About 5,000 protesters filled Tahrir Square Sunday afternoon.
Mubarak, Egypt's iron-fisted ruler of nearly 30 years, is known to have little or no tolerance for Islamist groups and the decision to open talks with the Brotherhood is a tacit recognition by his regime of their key role in the ongoing protests as well as their wide popular base.
Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq have rejected calls for Mubarak's immediate ouster, arguing that demanding his departure was a betrayal of the services he offered the country both as a career air force officer and president.
Earlier on Sunday, Mursi of the Brotherhood told The Associated Press the group was sticking to the protesters' main condition that Mubarak step down. He also rejected proposals that Suleiman take over from Mubarak on an interim basis to oversee reforms. It is not clear whether Egypt's constitution allows the vice president to assume any of the president's duties while he is still serving in office.
The Brotherhood aims to create an Islamic state in Egypt, but insists that it would not force women to cover up in public in line with Islam's teachings and would not rescind Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
The group, which fields candidates as independents, made a surprisingly strong showing in elections in 2005, winning 20 percent of parliament's seats. However, thousands of its members were arrested in crackdowns over the past decade and it failed to win a single seat in elections held late last year. The vote was heavily marred by fraud that allowed the National Democratic Party to win all but a small number of the chamber's 518 seats.
America's confidence in Suleiman is not shared by the protesters, who doubt the ruling party will bring democracy unless they continue their mass demonstrations. They want the concrete victory of Mubarak's removal - though some appear willing to settle for his sidelining as a figurehead - with a broadbased transitional government to work out a new constitution.
"What happened so far does not qualify as reform," said Amr Hamzawy, a member of the Committee of Wise Men, a self-appointed group of prominent figures from Egypt's elite that is unconnected to the protesters but has met with Suleiman to explore solutions to the crisis. "There seems to be a deliberate attempt by the regime to distract the proponents of change and allow the demands to disintegrate in the hope of (regime) survival."
That could mean the crisis could move into a test of sheer endurance, as protesters try to keep drumming out tens of thousands into Tahrir day after day.