Live blog Feb 6 - Egypt protests (P1)

By Al Jazeera Staff in

Middle East

on February 5th, 2011.

[Photo by GALLO/GETTY]

From our headquarters in Doha, we keep you updated on all things Egypt, with reporting from Al Jazeera staff in Cairo and Alexandria.  Live Blog: Jan28 - Jan29 - Jan30 - Jan31 - Feb1 - Feb2 - Feb3 - Feb4 -Feb5

The Battle for Egypt - AJE Live Stream - Timeline - Photo Gallery - AJE Tweets - AJE Audio Blogs 

(All times are local in Egypt, GMT+2)

3:00am Check out a shot of a solidarity protest in Seattle (right in the heart of the city's downtown shopping area), just posted by one of our viewers/readers on our yourmedia site:

2:47am With the protests against Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president, showing no sign of abating, many observers are looking to the United Nations to step in. But at the UN Security Council, the issue is not even up for discussion. So what to make of the fact that the world body doesn't seem inclined to address the historic and urgent events unfolding in Egypt? Here's Scott Heidler's report from New York: 

1:35am Edward Peck, a former US diplomat who has served in Egypt - among other places - tells Al Jazeera that the US message on Eygpt reveals and interesting chasm between the Obama administration and regime and Frank Wisner, Obama's former envoy

Whereas the White House is calling for an "orderly transition" between Mubarak's regime and a new Egyptian government, Wisner said that Mubarak "must stay in office to steer" a process of gathering "national consensus around the preconditions" for the way forward.

What they (the Obama administration) have always said, in a much more diplomatic phrase, is that the transition has to transition ... and this would imply that they believe that Mr. Mubarak is viewed as an obstacle by too many people in Egypt to what they want, and in order to keep the stability that Frank Wisner referred to, Mr. Mubarak has to leave. A resignation of some of his cabinet members and party leaders does not indicate a change if the man at the wheel remains the same person. So, I think Wisner is probably way out of line here in terms of representing the views of his government.

12:06am: After a day of tension with the military trying to remove barricades set up by the protesters, one Al Jazeera correspondent says that things are relatively calm - more so than last night - as the crowd hunkers down in the rainy night in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.