Scottish Catholic Observer

Egypt’s President Muharak has resigned after weeks of protests in the North African country.

Vice President Omar Suleiman announced this afternoon that President Muharak (above) was stepping down with immediate effect.

“In these difficult circumstances that the country is passing through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the position of the presidency,” Mr Suleiman said. “He has commissioned the armed forces council to direct the issues of the state.”

The resignation comes after more than two weeks of huge public protests in major Egyptian cities and mounting pressure from the international community.

Earlier this week the director of the Vatican press office, Fr Frederico Lombardi, said the Holy See was sympathetic to the protestors and hopeful the situation would be resolved peacefully.

“We all hope that the people involved will be spared violence and blood and that the times of instability will not be prolonged, at which point the risk of opposition and clashes is greater,” he said. “Naturally, the economic difficulties, the condition of poverty that tests large strata of the populations, made more acute by the global economic crisis, had great weight in the origin of the protests. Now there are whole peoples that, to realize their dignity better, appeal for a more responsible exercise of their rights of citizenship, which every human person, every religion is entitled to.”

Speaking about the persecution of Christians in Egypt and other Muslim countries, Fr Lombardi said he was hopeful these developments would lead to more equitable treatment for Christian minorities.

“Christians are a very small minority, but they are in solidarity with all in these expectations and hopes,” he said. “If these nations of Muslim majority succeed in the critical enterprise of growing in dialogue, in respect of the rights of all, in participation, in liberty, the peace of the world will be more secure.”