AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Thousands of protesters are expected to march on the streets demanding his resignation after Mubarak remained defiant.
Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters are expected to march on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities on Friday, in what could become the largest - and some fear the most violent - protests thus far.
The demonstrators’ hopes for the resignation of the President were dashed on Thursday as Hosni Mubarak, in a 17-minute address on television, said he was determined to stay in power until September, when his current term ends.
Mubarak said he was handing "the functions of the president" to Vice-President Omar Suleiman and that he would oversee an "exit" from the current crisis, and "realise the demands voiced by the youth and citizens ... without undermining the constitution in a manner that ensures the stability of our society".
Before he finished his anticlimactic speech, protesters camped in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of Egypt’s revolution, shouted "donkey, leave!"
Rabab Al Mahdi, a professor at the American University in Cairo, told Al Jazeera that the level of anger and frustration at the square was "unprecedented".
"This is putting us into a messy situation that can turn bloody at any moment," she said, adding that the fact that Mubarak "for more than 10 minutes, was talking about himself - very narcissistic, again, giving the message that he's still in control, and this, in and by itself, offended people."
Egyptian state television did not broadcast the scenes of anger after Mubarak's speech. 'People in tears' >>> Al Jazeera and agencies | Friday, February 11, 2011
