"Mubarak... "tight-lipped"..fears that the US renews pressure for human rights & democratic reform in his own autocratic system..."

Reuters, here

"...The readiness of America's adversaries to acknowledge that Obama has brought a more sensitive verbal approach to the region is striking. In contrast, some traditional U.S. allies such as Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak have kept tight-lipped.

Conservative Arab leaders may have misgivings about Obama's overtures to their own regional rivals, Iran and Syria, and may fear that he will in time renew U.S. pressure for human rights and democratic reform in their own autocratic systems.

But for many in the Middle East, Obama's search for dialogue with Iran, his declaration in Turkey this month that America was not at war with Islam, his stress on a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and his plans to withdraw from Iraq constitute a reassuring change from the perceived belligerence and pro-Israeli bias of his predecessor George W. Bush....

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal last week welcomed Washington's "positive approach" of seeking a diplomatic way out of the Iranian nuclear crisis and urged Iran to reciprocate.

But Obama's outreach to Tehran appears to have discomfited Egypt, a longstanding U.S. ally, an Egyptian analyst said."It makes some Arab governments, particularly Egypt, quite unhappy because they would have liked to be on the same side with the Americans in dealing with Iran," said Mustapha al-Sayyid, political science professor at Cairo University."