White House girds for long siege of Arab unrest
Turmoil to test security, Obama’s ability to shape Middle East's forces of change
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Jump to video Standoff near Cairo’s US Embassy ends
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Video: Standoff near Cairo’s US Embassy ends
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Closed captioning of: Standoff near Cairo’s US Embassy ends
>>> things are much quieter though the middle east remains a tinder box after several days of anti-american demonstrations, at times turning violent. at this hour the state department and the military are taking efforts to step up security at u.s. embassies across the region. jim maceda joins us from cairo. good evening.
>> reporter: hello, lester. the state department is closing embassies temporarily in sudan and yemen warning of travel risks in those countries and in tunisia where americans are encouraged to leave as worries about more violent protests escalate. a four-day standoff outside the u.s. embassy in cairo ended this morning. when riot police charged the protesters and cleared out out tahrir square. the city began to return to normal as did the country with no reported protests or violence. friday's day of rage spread across more than 20 countries. in tunisia today local citizens and security personnel surveyed damaged cars and buildings at the u.s. embassy now protected by armored vehicles while a u.s. marine rapid response team took up positions at yemen's charred u.s. embassy and western hotels. it wasn't all quiet. as far away acs sydney, australia, hundreds protested outside the u.s. consulate saying america had defiled their religion.
>> we are defending our prophet's honor.
>> reporter: with the whole middle east in crisis pope benedict xvi offered a message of peace today on a rare visit to lebanon where he said people of different faiths now live together. but in the arab world , anger runs deeper than religion and america is a lightning rod .
>> everyone has something against it. so whenever something relates to america happens, everyone is just all fired up.
>> reporter: even after the arab spring which the u.s. embraced, america is disliked and mistrusted and not just by muslim militants.
>> a lot of ordinary people say why do you support our dictators.
>> reporter: some egyptians said they were beginning to change their mind about america until the anti-islam film clip appeared on the internet. now as american embassies and symbols become targets around the world the state department is taking no chances.
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