UPDATE: Not stepping down….will “delegate” powers to veep
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. intelligence indicates “a strong likelihood” that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is on his way out and may step down as early as Thursday night, CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress.
Panetta said he didn’t know specifics, but said it seemed likely that Mubarak would turn over powers to his vice president, Omar Suleiman. Panetta made the comments in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee as Egyptian state TV said the embattled president would speak to the nation Thursday night from his palace in Cairo.
Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian ambassador to the United States, told The Associated Press in Washington it was “a fluid situation” and that “there are indications that something extraordinary is about to happen.”
President Barack Obama monitored the developments aboard Air Force One on his way to an event in Michigan. “We’re going to have to wait and see what’s going on,” the president told reporters during a stop at a diner in Marquette, Mich.
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