Downing Street Says

» Thursday, February 3, 2011

Egypt

Asked if, following on from this morning’s EU5 statement on Egypt, there had been a change in our position, the PMS said that it was in line with what we had been saying yesterday.

Asked why the message hadn’t changed when the situation in Egypt had changed, the PMS said that the statement from the EU5 was in line with what we had been saying yesterday. Our view was that what we saw yesterday and overnight was very concerning, and that we condemned any violence unreservedly. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, if as some reports suggested the regime had been sponsoring violence it would be completely unacceptable.

Asked if there had been any discussions about sanctions, the PMS said that that was not something that was currently on the table. We needed to see an orderly transition to a broad-based government, and a road map needed to be set out for that process.

Asked why the UK Government was sending a second plane to Egypt, the PMS said that the position remained the same as yesterday: we sent the second plane, as we had done the first, as a sensible contingency to ensure there was sufficient capacity for people to leave the country if they wanted to.

Asked what was happening to Embassy staff, the PMS said that standard Foreign Office practice was that dependents and non-essential Embassy staff should follow their own travel advice.

Asked what could be done if nothing changed, the PMS said that we would continue to use all channels available to bring pressure to bear on the regime. We were concerned about what we had seen overnight and how things were developing.

Asked if we would have to insist that President Mubarak stood down, the PMS said that we were not going to get into a position where we were telling different countries who their leaders should be. However, we had been very clear that we needed to see the process of transition to a broad-based government begin.

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» Thursday, February 3, 2011

Egypt

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