The United States expressed disappointment
Tuesday over Egypt's extension of its decades-old state of emergency law and
called on its parliament to pass a new anti-terrorism law.
Egypt's parliament renewed the law Monday upon President Hosny Mubarak's
request despite criticism that the government uses the law as a pretext for
arresting political opponents.
"It's disappointing that they did decide to extend the state of
emergency," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, adding that
Mubarak had previously pledged to repeal the state of emergency.
Mubarak promised in his 2005 re-election campaign that he would end the state
of emergency that has been in place since former president Anwar Sadat's 1981
assassination, but the effort has been held up in parliament. The emergency law
was set to expire at the end of this month.
While the United States and Egypt are close allies, Washington has continued to
push Mubarak to introduce democratic reforms and end crackdowns against
political opponents like the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
McCormack called on the parliament to replace the state of emergency with a new
counterterrorism law that "also allows the ability of people to freely
express themselves in public and in private, even if those views are contrary
or inconsistent with the policies of the government.", dpa reported.
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