Egyptian Vice President survives assassination bid

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Neeraj R Krish

05 February, 2011

Reports which surfaced right after the bid said that such an attempt on the life of Omar Suleiman would mark an alarming turn in the uprising against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who only recently named Suleiman as Vice President.

THE ONGOING protests in Egypt took an ugly turn when an attempted assassination bid on the Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman left two of his bodyguards dead. Reports which surfaced right after the bid said that such an attempt on the life of Omar Suleiman would mark an alarming turn in the uprising against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who only recently named Suleiman as Vice President in an effort to quell the unrest and possibly line up a successor.

The reports which surfaced in an American newspaper have forced White House officials such as the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to keep mum on the issue. When asked what led to such an act, Gibbs stated that he would not be getting into that question.

However, other leading newspapers in the United States state that the US administration led by US President Barack Obama are pushing the opposition groups in Egypt to get involved in an active dialogue participation with Vice President Omar Suleiman, which is scheduled for February 5.

The tabloids also said that in conversations with Defence Minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi and Lt Gen Sami Enan, the military chief, administration officials stressed the importance of preserving the army's position as the most respected institution in Egypt.

On February 4, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates contacted his Egyptian counterpart for the fourth time.

The reports also suggested that at the Saturday meeting, the US dministration hoped that government and opposition leaders will begin to draw the contours of a multi-step transition, including the immediate suspension of harsh emergency laws and establishment of a roadmap for constitutional changes and free and fair elections.