The several millions people strong peaceful protest held in cities all over Egypt on Tuesday, 1 February, gave way to serious confrontation on Wednesday. Clashes between protesters and pro-regime supporters (accused of being regime thugs on several news channels) have left at least three people dead and more than 1,500 injured.

Molotovs and rocks rained down from rooftops and trucks on the protesters calling for the president to step down.

Ahmed Zewail, the 1999 Chemistry Nobel Laureate and a member of Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, has arrived in Egypt amidst the chaos with hopes of uniting Egyptians again and stopping the bloodshed. He told reporters at the airport that his most important task now would be to stop the bloodshed and start talks between the different stakeholders and putting forward a final position by Thursday or Friday.

He also called on President Mubarak to step down to stop the bloodshed, a call echoed earlier by Farouk El-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University. They have asked him to step down with dignity not to flee away.

Speaking to TV programme “Good morning Arabs”, El-Baz said that Mubarak’s presidency has been “stagnant”, missing any clear political or developmental agendas.

Zewail is determined to form a “council of wise people” that represents the different parties that can negotiate the country through the dangerous situation it is in now.