“We are thankful for the offer from Germany, but the president does not need medical treatment,” said Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s vice president, in an interview on Wednesday.
Speculation was rife that the embattled Egyptian president would be offered temporary sanctuary in Germany as a way to give him a dignified way to leave the country and calm protests on the streets.
Mubarak has been to Germany at least twice before, most recently at the Heidelberg University Clinic in 2010 where he had his gall bladder and an intestinal polyp removed.
Several German politicians had expressed support for such a plan, saying that allowing Mubarak to come to the country temporarily, although not offering him exile, could help facilitate a peaceful transition in Egypt.
Elmar Brok, a German member of the European parliament from the conservative Christian Democratic Party, called on Berlin yesterday to send a “discreet signal” to the 82-year-old authoritarian leader that he could come to Germany if he wanted. According to media reports, a luxury clinic in southwestern Germany was already under consideration.
Mubarak has said he would not stand again for president in September, although he has insisted that he remain in power until then in order to preserve stability in the country. Egyptian demonstrators, however, are demanding that he step down immediately.
DPA/The Local/kdj
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