Mubarak resignation creates political vacuum for US in Middle East

WASHINGTON - President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down after three decades in power presents the Obama administration with a political vacuum in the Middle East.

According to the Washington Post, the Obama administration will be compelled to shift roles - from managing a volatile political standoff that paralyzed a regional ally to ensuring that Egypt’s commanding generals, many of them trained in the United States, carry out the political and legal changes necessary to guarantee fair elections later this year.

According to the paper, Washington is now looking beyond on the ground situations in Cairo, Tunis and Amman.

It is looking at how to encourage the election of governments that are responsive to their electorates and to U.S. interests.

Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, said the administration had reached out by phone to officials across the Arab world in recent days to assure them that the United States intends “to keep its commitments.”

But a senior Republican member of Congress who has access to intelligence reports said U.S. spy agencies have seen recent indications that other Middle East leaders were dismayed by the United States’ treatment of Mubarak. (ANI)