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The spokesperson for the US State Department has said that Egypt is undergoing a “process of political reform” but offered no position regarding the upcoming referendum on constitutional amendments.
“You have to put this in the wider context of political and economic reform in Egypt,” McCormack said in response to questions about the speed of the referendum process and concerns over new anti-terror, judicial and electoral laws included in the proposed constitutional amendments.
“I don’t want to offer at this point too detailed an explanation of our views,” McCormack maintained.
“I, quite frankly, don’t want to insert the United States government in the middle of what should be a domestic political event in Egypt.”
McCormack’s statements seemed to contrast with those of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice two years ago, who in a June 2005 speech at the American University in Cairo said “the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty” and that it was “time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy.”
“For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither,” Rice said.
“Now we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.”
In Cairo, US Embassy spokesman John Berry told The Daily Star Egypt that Ambassador Francis Ricciardone did not have a comment at this time and that “for whatever reason, we don’t have a statement yet coming out from Washington.”
When asked if the US Embassy in Cairo could comment on the upcoming referendum, Berry said, “I don’t think we are [commenting].”
Berry referred The Daily Star Egypt to the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in Washington, DC, which in turn referred to McCormack’s statements Tuesday.

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