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Mubarak says 'chaos' will reign in Egypt if he steps down

© RIA Novosti . Andrei Stenin / Go to the mediabank"Right now I care about my country, I care about Egypt"
Right now I care about my country, I care about Egypt - Sputnik International
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday that the country would descend further into "chaos" if he stepped down immediately.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday that the country would descend further into "chaos" if he stepped down immediately, as protesters demanded.

"I don't care what people say about me," Mubarak told ABC News' Christiane Amanpour. "Right now I care about my country, I care about Egypt."

The unrest, which began in Egypt on January 25, has already claimed the lives of at least 300 people and injured several thousand. On Thursday, violent clashes between opposition demonstrators and Mubarak supporters on Cairo's central Tahrir Square killed at least eight people and injured up to 1,500, and doctors say the number of casualties would rise further.

"I was very unhappy about yesterday. I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each other," said the embattled president, who has faced a major challenge from the opposition for the first time in his 30-year rule.

Mubarak also denied allegations that the Egyptian authorities were orchestrating Thursday's violence, and blamed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist umbrella group that is banned in Egypt, for instigating the riots.

The 82-year-old president, who has already pledged not to run in elections due in September, said he was "fed up" with his job and wanted to leave his office, but was not able to do so because this would result in more violence.

Commenting on calls from Washington for immediate steps to be taken by the Egyptian government to resolve the crisis, Mubarak said the White House lacked an understanding of the situation. He said he told U.S. President Barack Obama: "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now."

 

MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti)

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