The Hill News

The key players in guiding Egypt through the political storm that has shaken that nation and the Middle East are now its new vice president and military, former U.S. ambassador Thomas Pickering said on Sunday.

Washington and its allies must work with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman and senior military there as a way forward is sketched after dramatic protests drove President Hosni Mubarak last week to announce he will step down later this year, said Pickering on "Face the Nation."

How are Suleiman and the military performing their new roles during an uncertain time for Egypt? "So far so good," said Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jordan and the United Nations.

As Washington attempts to track the volatile situation from afar -- and help mold a plan for what follows Mubarak -- many have sounded dire warnings about the dangers of certain opposition groups taking over.

But Pickering on Sunday was upbeat, saying he is "hopeful this could turn out quite well."

Martin Indyk, Brookings Institution vice president, gave the Obama administration high marks.

President Barack Obama "has gotten the basic policy right -- get on the side of change" and then largely allow the reform movement without trying to drive it, said Indyk, who was assistant secretary of state for mid east affairs during the Clinton administration.

There are myriad unresolved issues about how the Egyptian situation will play out, the former diplomats said. And few answers are clear just yet, they added.

Pickering said U.S. officials will be looking for signs on whether "there is any linkage between the people in the [streets] and the opposition parties" that are expected to enter candidates in an eventual presidential election.

Another issue U.S. policymakers will watch, according to Pickering: "Can a transition be managed, or does there have to be a clean break" from Mubarak's regime?