Cairo, April 09: Egypt on Friday accused the United States of interfering in its internal affairs, saying that comments calling for free elections were “unacceptable.”
The US State Department on Wednesday expressed concern over the arrest of dozens of Egyptians at a pro-reform rally, adding that Egyptians should be allowed to freely choose their next president.
“The statement went… from talking about those arrests to other internal, political Egyptian questions in a manner that goes beyond convention and which Egypt finds unacceptable,” a foreign ministry statement said.
That was an apparent reference to comments by US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley, who said that Egyptians should be allowed to “determine who will run and win Egypt’s upcoming elections.”
Constitutional hurdles effectively block most candidates from standing in next year’s election. President Hosni Mubarak has not said whether he will run again and is believed to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him eventually.
The foreign ministry statement described Crowley’s comments as “interference in Egyptian internal affairs.”
The activists arrested at the central Cairo rally on Tuesday have all been released. Witnesses at the protest said police beat and dragged the activists and confiscated reporters’ cameras.
Mubarak, a close US ally, is facing mounting opposition at home after nearly three decades in power with emergency laws.
Former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei is emerging as the country’s leading dissident, and has said he will stand only if the constitution is amended.
—Agencies