Senate calls for restraint in Egypt

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate passed a resolution calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to relinquish power, officials said.

Thursday's resolution was sponsored Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and it also asked the Egyptian military to use "maximum professionalism and restraint," The Hill reported.

The resolution also called for elections.

The situation in Egypt could become a "genuine massacre," McCain said in a floor speech.

"We cannot afford that, and we must do everything in our power to see that it stops," McCain said. "This is a seminal moment in the history of the Middle East and the world. We are seeing an uprising and a movement that spread across the entire Middle East."

After a meeting at the White House with President Obama, McCain called for Mubarak to give up power. Kerry said Egypt should respect and protect human rights.

"We urge the parties involved to take every step possible to avoid violence and to respect the rights of the people in Egypt to assemble, to express their rights, to fight for and demonstrate for a transition in their lives and in their country," said Kerry.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., co-sponsored the resolution.