Hillary Clinton urges Egypt's military leadership to surrender political powers "Democracy is hard," she said. It requires dialogue and compromise and real politics. We are encouraged and we want to be helpful. But we know that it is not for the United States to decide; it is for the Egyptian people to decide. Her encouragement did not appear to yield immediate results as Gen Tantawi raised the stakes in his standoff with Mr Morsi by declaring that he would never allow the Muslim Brotherhood to dominate Egypt. The new president, who has been rendered largely powerless by the general's expropriation of legislative authority for themselves, is fighting to overturn the order dissolving parliament. Mrs Clinton's trip is the most significant by a US politician since President Barack Obama a speech in Cairo in 2009 that was meant to mend relations with the Muslim world after the acrimony of the George W Bush era. But Mr Obama's support for Hosni Mubarak, overthrown in last year's revolution, has cost him dearly. Opinion polls show that 76 per cent of Egyptians view him unfavourably. Grappling with that legacy, Mrs Clinton has also had to find a way to respond to the rise of political Islam, with its deep anti-Western and anti-Israeli traditions, through the ballot box. "Things change at kind of warp speed," she acknowledged ruefully. Despite a loss of US leverage, Mrs Clinton also sought to use soft diplomacy to influence the Muslim Brotherhood into pursuing a moderate course. She promised Mr Morsi major US financial support if he undertook to respect the rights of women and minorities and agreed to maintain relations with Israel.