Obama concerned about stability in the Middle East

Noting that every country of the region has different solution, Obama however cautioned the governments of the region not to use force against peaceful protestors.

"Ultimately, these are sovereign countries that are going to have to make their own decisions. What we can do is lend moral support to those who are seeking a better life for themselves," Obama said at a White House news conference.

"Obviously, we`re concerned about stability throughout the region. Each country is different," he asserted.

"The message that we`ve sent even before the demonstrations in Egypt has been, to friend and foe alike, that the world is changing; that you have a young, vibrant generation in the Middle East that is looking for greater opportunity, and that if you are governing these countries you`ve got to get out ahead of change, you can`t be behind the curve," Obama said.

"The thing that will actually achieve stability in that region is if young people, if ordinary folks end up feeling that there are pathways for them to feed their families, get a decent job, get an education, aspire to a better life," he said.

"The more steps these governments are taking to provide these avenues for mobility and opportunity, the more stable these countries are," Obama said, adding that one can?t maintain power through coercion.

"At some level in any society, there has to be consent. That`s particularly true in this new era where people can communicate not just through some centralized government or state-run TV, but they can get on a smart phone or a Twitter account and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people," he said.

"My belief is that, as a consequence of what`s happening in Tunisia and Egypt, governments in that region are starting to understand this. And my hope is that they can operate in a way that is responsive to this hunger for change but always do so in a way that doesn`t lead to violence," Obama said.

‘More needs to be done in Egypt’

Expressing satisfaction over the recent developments in Egypt, US President Barack Obama today said that a lot more needs to be done to restore real democracy in the Arab country where popular uprising toppled long time President Hosni Mubarak.

"Obviously there`s still a lot of work to be done in Egypt itself, but what we`ve seen so far is positive," Obama said at a White House news conference.

"The military council that is in charge has reaffirmed its treaties with countries like Israel and international treaties. It has met with the opposition, and the opposition has felt that it is serious about moving towards fair and free elections," he said.

"Egypt`s going to require help in building democratic institutions and also in strengthening an economy that`s taken a hit as a consequence of what happened, but so far, at least, we`re seeing the right signals coming out of Egypt," he said.

Acknowledging that there are ramifications throughout the region, Obama said: "I think my administration`s approach is the approach that jibes with how most Americans think about this region, which is that each country is different, each country has its own traditions, America can`t dictate how they run their societies."

He said: "There there`s certain universal principles that we adhere to. One of them is, we don`t believe in violence as a way of and coercion as a way of maintaining control, and so we think it`s very important that in all the protests that we`re seeing throughout the region, that governments respond to peaceful protesters peacefully."

The second principle that the US believes in strongly is in the right to express ones opinions and the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly that allows people to share their grievances with the government and to express themselves in ways that, hopefully, will over time meet their needs.

Without revisiting all the events over the last three weeks, Obama said he thinks history will end up recording that at every juncture in the situation in Egypt, that the US was on the right side of history.

"What we didn`t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt, because we can`t," he said.

"I started talking about reform two weeks or two and a half weeks before Mubarak ultimately stepped down. And at each juncture, I think we calibrated it just about right. We ended up seeing was a peaceful transition, relatively little violence, and relatively little if any anti-American sentiment or anti-Israel sentiment or anti-Western sentiment. That testifies to the fact that, in a complicated situation, we got it about right," Obama said.