Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the United States was looking at ways to support the opposition to Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi. "We understand the urgency of this. And therefore we are upping our humanitarian assistance. We are looking for ways to support the opposition," said Clinton, speaking at a news conference during a visit to Cairo.
"But we believe that this must be an international effort and that there (have) to be decisions made in the (UN) Security Council in order for any of these steps to go forward," she said. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday began the highest-level visit to Egypt by a US official since an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak, for decades a close ally of Washington.
She is expected to urge the military rulers to whom Mubarak handed power on February 11 to lay the ground for a genuine transition to democracy and offer support to the Egyptians whose mass uprising swept him from office. One coalition of pro-democracy activists said it had turned down an invitation to meet Clinton in protest at US policy towards Egypt and the US position on the anti-Mubarak revolt. Mubarak crushed opposition during his three decades in power.
US President Barack Obama lavished praise on the protesters the day Mubarak stepped down but it was too little too late for the Egyptian activists, who felt his administration gave Mubarak too much support during the uprising. The January 25 coalition, made up of six youth groups, said in a statement that Clinton was not welcome "because the US administration long supported Mubarak's corrupt, dictatorial regime financially, politically and morally".
They also called for a more balanced relationship between Cairo and Washington, whose influence they blame for shaping Egyptian policies including their country's role in enforcing the blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. A cautious approach during the uprising put the US administration out of step with protesters and Washington was criticised for being slow to grasp the scale of the upheaval.
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