<p>In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Obama stopped short of saying when - or if - Mubarak would step down, but said he couldn't predict what the next step was.<br /><br />"Only he knows what he's going to do," he said adding, he couldn't make Mubarak, who has long been an ally of the US, do anything.<br /><br />"What we can do is we can say the time is now for you to start making change in that country," he said.<br /><br />"Egypt is not going to go back to what it was," he said. "The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, they want a responsive government. And so, what we've said is you have to start a transition now..."<br /><br />Obama said that the US has told Mubarak publicly and privately for many years that he cannot continue to suppress the Egyptian people.<br /><br />"Part of the message that I think we're seeing all around the world is when you resort to suppression, when you resort to violence, that does not work," he said. Asked if the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat to the US, Obama said the opposition Islamist umbrella group are anti-US, but stressed that is only one faction in Egypt and that they don't have majority support.<br /><br />"They don't have majority support in Egypt, but they are well organized and there are strains of their ideology that are anti-US." Obama salso said that the future of Egypt is in the hands of its people, and that their options consist of more than the current situation or the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><br />"(But) there are a whole bunch of secular folks in Egypt, there are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that want to come to the fore as well."<br /><br />Obama said he's confident Egypt can have an orderly transition process that leads to a representative government "we can work with together as a partner."</p>
<p>In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Obama stopped short of saying when - or if - Mubarak would step down, but said he couldn't predict what the next step was.<br /><br />"Only he knows what he's going to do," he said adding, he couldn't make Mubarak, who has long been an ally of the US, do anything.<br /><br />"What we can do is we can say the time is now for you to start making change in that country," he said.<br /><br />"Egypt is not going to go back to what it was," he said. "The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, they want a responsive government. And so, what we've said is you have to start a transition now..."<br /><br />Obama said that the US has told Mubarak publicly and privately for many years that he cannot continue to suppress the Egyptian people.<br /><br />"Part of the message that I think we're seeing all around the world is when you resort to suppression, when you resort to violence, that does not work," he said. Asked if the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat to the US, Obama said the opposition Islamist umbrella group are anti-US, but stressed that is only one faction in Egypt and that they don't have majority support.<br /><br />"They don't have majority support in Egypt, but they are well organized and there are strains of their ideology that are anti-US." Obama salso said that the future of Egypt is in the hands of its people, and that their options consist of more than the current situation or the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><br />"(But) there are a whole bunch of secular folks in Egypt, there are a whole bunch of educators and civil society in Egypt that want to come to the fore as well."<br /><br />Obama said he's confident Egypt can have an orderly transition process that leads to a representative government "we can work with together as a partner."</p>