My father taught me that you have to stand by your principles.
When you have half of Caironese in slums, when you don't have clean water, when you don't have a sewer system, when you don't have electricity, and on top of that you live under one of the most repressive regimes right now... Well, put all that together, and it's a ticking bomb. It's not of a question of threat; it is question of looking around at the present environment and making a rational prognosis.
We still have time to negotiate, we still have time for diplomacy, because there are still a number of issues that have not been clarified, that created a lack of confidence.
Managing a country is like managing a company in many ways. It maybe involves more complicated issues, but its the same skills.
We still live in a world where if you have nuclear weapons, you are buying power; you are buying insurance against attack.
Nobody wants any country to have nuclear weapons.
The gravest threat faced by the world is of an extremist group getting hold of nuclear weapons or materials.
Youre shooting yourself in the foot if you isolate or disempower the moderates.
The sooner we put Egypt on the right track, the sooner we would be able to have an Egypt that is modern, that is moderate, and that is acting as a beacon for freedom and liberty across the Arab world.
I think it is fair to say that it is under a great deal of stress, and if I am asking for significant changes, it is because the world is going through significant changes.
Discipline is part of my professional training as a lawyer.
Its up to any government to decide how to react to the denial of basic human rights anywhere in the world, including Egypt.
I grew up in a conservative household. That was the life of the time in Egypt: a conservative, middle-class household.
We have no functioning parliament in Egypt and months ago Mohammed Morsi assumed legislative functions. Now he's decided that there should be no opposition to the laws that he makes and that he is authorized to pass any national security measure. It is difficult to be more absolutist than that. And the constitutional convention - what a sad gathering; it threatens to send us back to the darkest period of the Middle Ages.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi grabbed full power for himself. Not even the pharaohs had so much authority, to say nothing of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak. This is a catastrophe - it a mockery of the revolution that brought him to power and an act that leads one to fear the worst.
If we are addressing the issue of weapons of mass destruction, we need to send a uniform, consistent message that there is zero tolerance to any country who is developing weapons of mass destruction, North Korea included.
The time is right for a political solution and the way is negotiations.
Egypt is indeed deeply divided. Without reconciliation we have no future. The Muslim Brotherhood is an important part of our society. I very much hope that it will participate in the next round of talks. I will be the first to protest if the imperative of fairness isn't adhered to.
No one should be put on trial without a valid reason. Former President Morsi must be treated with dignity. These are the conditions of national reconciliation.
In April I founded the Constitution Party. With the Social Democrats and all liberal powers we will combine against the Islamists. We still have a chance and we should not waste the awakening; that would be a tragedy. Young people want more personal freedom and better jobs. They want a clear word from the West against Mohammed Morsi. If Americans and Europeans really believe in the values that they are always preaching then they must help us and pressure Morsi.
I have, as you know, the utmost respect for President Obama as a person.
I feel relieved that we discovered that Iraq did not have nuclear weapons.
Almost all of the liberal and Christian members of the constitutional commission have withdrawn, because we all fear that the Muslim Brotherhood will pass a document with Islamist undertones that marginalizes the rights of women and religious minorities. Who sits in this group? One person, who wants to ban music, because it's allegedly against Sharia law; another, who denies the Holocaust; another, who openly condemns democracy.
Egypt under Hosni Mubarak had deteriorated to the status of a failed state. We must wipe the slate clean and start again.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a religiously conservative group. They are a minority in Egypt. They are not a majority of the Egyptian people, but they have a lot of credibility because all the other liberal parties have been smothered for 30 years.
