Mubarak has taken a back seat and people outside Tahrir Square are yearning to return to their lives.

Forces opposed to Mubarak are talking to Vice President Omar Suleiman and there seems to be widespread consensus that most of the protesters' demands have been met and they should now go home and allow the country to get back to work.

The likes of arch anti-Mubarak personalities like Western-backed former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Mohammed El Baradai continue to demand that Mubarak must go now, while some protesters have set up camp in the encircled Tahrir Square, under the watchful eye of the military.

But even the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood is in the talking mood in Cairo today, with more persuasive Egyptian figures like Arab League Secretary General (and former Egyptian Foreign Minister) Amr Moussa also emerging as possible contenders for post-Mubarak political leadership.

Whatever happens tomorrow, Egypt won't be the same as today or yesterday.

But it's precisely the weight of this uncertainty of what Egypt will become after Mubarak that burdens the minds of many in the West and Israel, as the antagonists and protagonists along the banks of the Nile begin to write a new chapter in the modern history of this ancient land of pharaohs and pyramids.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

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