Erian, a veteran Brotherhood leader and the vice chairman of its new

Erian, a veteran Brotherhood leader and the vice chairman of its new party, who met with Mr. Walles. “And we are keen and eager to say that we respect the democratic process and the rights of all people according to the Constitution and the law.” Administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic exchanges, said they hoped that a combination of internal and external pressure on the council would persuade it to yield power and submit to civilian oversight. In addition to the public comments by Mrs. Clinton, other senior American officials have privately urged the council to revise its recent proposals to preserve power, the officials said. The officials noted that since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster, the council’s leaders had repeatedly offered, then backed away from, some proposals only after street protests and public pressure, in a kind of prolonged back-and-forth that some noted reflected a true, if messy, democratic process taking root. But administration officials and Egyptian activists note worrying signs. The military core of Mr. Mubarak’s government has “reasserted itself again,” a senior administration official said. “We don’t have great expectations that this is going to be the creation of a democratic system,” the official said, referring to the coming elections. At best, the official added, the elections will be “a transition to a transition,” one that could leave the military as the de facto power in Egypt for years to come, as it was under Mr. Mubarak’s rule. The military has said that it intends to hold ultimate political power even after the election of a Parliament in the coming months, and that it will play a role in drafting the constitution as well. It has refused to lift the Mubarak-era “emergency law” allowing arrests without trial, and it has sent as many as 12,000 civilians to military trials. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031945