Toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that his decision to
step down was his own, adding that he could have remained in power if he
had wanted to, in an interview with Egyptian daily Al-Watan published
on Wednesday.
Mubarak reportedly made the statements in an interview conducted at the Tora Prison Hospital in Cairo.
“I
made the decision to step down myself. No one pressured me. It was
possible for me to stay in power but I decided to step down to protect
people’s lives and not shed blood,” Mubarak said, according to the
paper.
Asked about current political developments in Egypt,
Mubarak said: “I am really sad.” He also commented on the Muslim
Brotherhood’s rule.
“[The people] chose them," he said, adding that he was unsure whether the Brotherhood would remain in power for long.
American pressure on Egypt
Mubarak
aired his views on the U.S.’s role in the Middle East, stating “all
what concerns America is guaranteeing Israel’s security.”
He also
said that the Americans had continuously pressured Egypt to establish
military bases in Egypt and that he always refused.
“[Late
defense minister Abdelhalim] Abu Ghazleh came once to me and said the
Americans requested to build a base here and I agreed. I told him: You
have no authority to approve that and neither do I. You don’t own
(Egypt) and neither do I.
“When I later met with the then-U.S.
Secretary of Defense during an official visit to the U.S., he told me
Abu Ghazleh approved establishing a military base. I told him the
Egyptian constitution allows neither Abu Ghazleh nor me to approve that.
Such an issue requires the approval of the parliament, and even if the
latter approves, a popular referendum is required. I ended the subject
there. They have more than once requested establishing bases in West
Cairo and Burj al-Arab. They wanted bases at any expense.”
Mubarak also stated that the U.S. had attempted to assert control over Egypt’s communications systems.
“Then
they wanted to establish an electronic network for the armed forces.
This is of course so Israel and America monitor [the armed forces]. I
told the defense minister to make them forget about it. But they
returned later wanting to connect all Cairo central terminals with
Ramsis’, and they actually agreed on that with the telecommunications
minister.”
Mubarak said that he was informed of the American plan
by the armed forces and realized that such a plan, if carried out,
would allow the U.S. to paralyze all communications in Egypt.
“This
means that when work at Ramsi's central terminal stops, all
communications in Egypt stop. I summoned the telecommunications minister
and told him: ‘So in this case, any phone call made passes through
Ramsis central.’ He said the Americans will do this for free.’ I told
him: ‘Don't you dare approve that. He said that the Americans had
already connected Giza’s central terminal with Ramsi's. So I told him to
just obstruct the plan at this point.”
Grandson’s death, a turning point
During the interview Mubarak revealed that the death of his grandson, Mohamed Alaa, in 2009 was a turning point in his life.
He further commented on the emotional trauma he says he underwent after his ouster.
“They
now want to humiliate me from the hospital to the prison to the court.
They think this humiliates me. No. I have seen worse in my life...I
simply live now and I am not afraid. God knows it all.”
Mubarak,
however, refused to talk about the January 2011 events that led to his
ouster saying: “I don’t like to talk about this. It's over now.”
However
he did comment on reports that he was advised to sack former
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Mohamed Tantawi, in 2011 to save
the regime from collapsing.
“If I had killed him then, people
would have made a hero out of him. They would have said that I requested
he opens fire on protesters and that he said no so I killed him.”
Al-Watan has split the interview into a two-part series, with the second section to be published on Thursday.
Another interview with Mubarak?
In May, al-Watan
said one of its reporters had interviewed Mubarak.
The
interview was billed as Mubarak’s first comments to the media since he
was detained after his removal from power in 2011. However, Farid
el-Deeb, Mubarak’s lawyer, accused the reporter - Mohamed al-Sheikh - of
fabricating the whole thing.
El-Deeb said that the pictures of
al-Sheikh sitting on a hospital bed allegedly in Mubarak’s private jet
did not prove that the journalist had met with Mubarak.
In comments to Al Arabiya, Sheikh fired back at Deeb.
“The interview is real,” al-Sheikh said.
Al-Watan
said that the journalist sat with the former president in a side room
at a court in which his retrial for protester killings was taking place.
“Mubarak
was sitting on a chair and did not look ill,” Sheikh told Al Arabiya,
adding that there were security guards in the room.
In the
alleged interview in May, Mubarak said he was concerned about Egypt’s
poor, saying: “This is the secret of my sadness: to see the poor in this
condition.”
He also purportedly said he was worried by the
prospect of Egypt concluding an agreement with the International
Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan to aid the country’s deteriorating
economy.
In his comments, Mubarak also said it was too early to judge the performance of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
“[Mursi]
is a new president who is carrying out weighty missions for the first
time, and we shouldn’t judge him now,” Mubarak said.