Condoleezza Rice Demands Support from Egypt

Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State, faced setbacks in the discussions with Egypt regarding the Hamas situation, the visit being a part of her tour of the Middle Eastern countries.

Even if the United Stated and Egypt are in good relations, they do not seem to agree on how to manage the Hamas-led Palestinian government. This is Rice's first trip since Hamas took control of the Palestinian authority.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, declared: "We should give Hamas time, I'm sure that Hamas will develop, will evolve. We should not prejudge the issue."

This message was not the one expected by Rice; regarding this problem, she stated: "If the new Palestinian government led by Hamas is going to be able to meet the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a peaceful life, for a better life, for a life in which there's economic development, it goes without saying that you cannot have one foot in the camp of terror and the other foot in the camp of politics."

During the U.S. official's visit to Cairo, a protest against President Mubarak was staged by 400 students, thus, according to them, putting an end to corruption and asking for a response for the accusations of election forgery. Another goal for this visit is a further isolation of Iran because of its uranium enrichment scheme.

Alongside Europe, Russia and China, the U.S. decided to report this matter to the U.N. Security Council in order to impose sanctions. The International Atomic Energy Agency has scheduled a meeting on March 6 and is expected to report this problem to the Security Council after Iran ended its cooperation with the agency.