And He's Off

[amcdonald]

Interesting. What happened to that guy Milliband?

Probably advertising bananas

[MarillionFan]

Eygypt is in Africa. not Europe

Israel is in Asia, but it still plays under the Europe for football.

[DaveB]

So he's handed power to "the high command of the armed forces". That doesn't sound good, does it?

It's probably the best outcome possible in the circumstances. I suspect the senior military officers will have had a quiet word with Mr Mubarak.

The Egyptian army has shown a great deal of control and restraint during the demonstrations. It could have waded in guns blazing on one side or the other but it didn't.

The Egyptian military is hugely influenced by the Americans. The tanks in Tahrir Square? US supplied M1 Abrams. Likewise APC's deployed elsewhere are US supplied M113's and there is a lot more US supplied kit floating around.

The Egyptian Army is probably second only to Israel in terms of firepower and technology and they want it to stay that way.

Expect a period of management by the Military Council followed by Elections within a few months. Even if the Muslim Brotherhood win the majority of seats in the election expect there to be a very clear message from the Army that the creation of an Islamic State will not be tolerated.