The formation of a civilian government, configuration of a body to draft the new constitution, lifting the state of emergency, releasing political prisoners, disbanding military courts, allowing freedom of media, dissolving the cabinet recently appointed by Mubarak, suspending the Parliament elected in 2010 and prosecuting those responsible for the deaths of hundreds of protesters are among other demands of the demonstrators.
Press TV interviews a political analyst on the ground in Damascus, Sami Mobayez, to get a feeling of how informed the Egyptian public is about what is going on behind the scenes.
Press TV: It has been said that it is not in the Egyptian military's interest now to actually turnover power to a civilian entity or government or transition force. What is your take on that?
Mobayez: Even if there are ambitious officers within that group they cannot even think of the idea of staying in power. I think you have to differentiate here between what these officers would like - all of them would definitely like to be another Hosni Mubarak and all of them as we know are trained by the Mubarak regime and nourished by the Mubarak regime.
Theoretically if a military officer wants to resign and run for the presidency he can. There is nothing that constitutionally prevents him from doing so. But as a military group, to have ambitions to remain in power or to impose some kind of military force on Egypt I think that's impossible.
Taking into account that the officers and the army in general in Egypt are not hated by the Egyptian population - the people had a problem with the police state of Mubarak; with those police whom they interacted on a daily basis there was a lot of friction. Whereas, they see the army as a more senior level that are vanguards of independence, so there is no hatred, as in some other Arab countries, between the military forces and the Egyptian people.
But will this current command that's in power have grandiose ambitions? Given the current situation and given what was achieved in Tahrir Square over 18 days, I think that's impossible.
Press TV: Do you think the protesters - the opposition movement are keeping a very close eye on the moves of the military right now? If they see any deviation from the path that the people want, will they again go out in mass in the streets?
Mobayez: I think there are two things that should be noted here: one is that people are very cautious at this stage. The demonstrators that have been in Tahrir Square for the past 18 days knew what it took to get rid of Mubarak. But now that Mubarak is out many of them are worried that somebody will come in to hijack their revolution be it El-Baradei, be it Amr Moussa, or be it other military officers as mentioned earlier.
So I think there is a very strong sense of alarm as to what might happen given that some of these officers are close to the US, given the declaration that came out today about the officers abiding by all international treaties signed by the previous regime, which would include Camp David signed by Sadat. That's one thing, so there's a feeling of let's wait and see where this goes.
But if there is any deviation from what these young Egyptians demand, the dice has already been cast and there is a feeling on the streets of Egypt that if something happens that we don't like we can take it out to the streets.
If we broke down Hosni Mubarak we can force any regime that comes next to abide by our demands.
Is there a feeling of general fear from these officers? There is a feeling of alarm that some of these officers or Amr Moussa or El-Baradei or someone else might try to hijack the glory of the revolution; but it's a wait and see policy at this stage.
Press TV:How do you see the role of leadership right now with this movement at this point in time? What do the leaders need to do in your perspective?
Mobayez: First of all the demonstrators of the January 25 revolt need to decide on a leader. Until this day what is so incredibly unique about this revolution is there is no single figure representing it unlike all other revolutions in contemporary history.
In Egypt 1952 if you wanted to talk to somebody representing the revolution you would go to General Najib of Colonel Nassif. At this stage in Egypt you don't have a single person representing those masses, so, you need someone who is young and acceptable to the greater Egyptian population who would probably be running either in the upcoming parliamentary elections given that this parliament is over, or definitely getting representation in any upcoming government and finally in nominating himself for the Egyptian presidency.
You need a leader. The state of having no leader among these masses, which was perfect for the past 18 days, no longer applies because if it continues to apply for an extra day, that revolt will get swamped and as I said earlier - hijacked, used and abused by the politicians who each will try to take all credit for himself or his party - and these people are established and they have masses and they have organizational skills and that's what the young people of Egypt should not let happen.
This is not a revolt for an occupier; this is not a revolt for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood; it is a revolt for the Egyptian youth and that's where the real challenge emerges in the upcoming period.
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