Major Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei warned of potential violent unrest after President Hosni Mubarak announced late Thursday he would not step down before September elections.

Mubarak “is gambling with his country” in order to stay at the helm, ElBaradei told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

He reiterated the message of his Twitter account, which read, “Egypt will explode. Army must save the country now.”

Major clashes between the people and the army, which Egyptians traditionally believe has been on their side, would be devastating, said ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

ElBaradei’s outlook had changed since hours before, when Egyptians, including thousands packed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, expected Mubarak to step down rather than delegate powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman.

Thursday afternoon, ElBaradei wrote: “I am closely following the situation. We are almost there.”

But he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Egyptians will not accept the new arrangement.

“Suleiman is considered to be an extension of Mubarak. They are twins. Neither of them is acceptable to the people,” ElBaradei said. “For the sake of their country, they should go.”

ElBaradei said a leadership council and a caretaker government should rule the North African nation for one year during a transition to a more democratic process.

Mubarak’s defiant remarks about foreign intervention, and his determination to see the transition through, was not what most in the Tahrir Square crowd wanted to hear.

“Get out! Get out!” many chanted as he spoke.

Suleiman told the protesters to go home and back to work. That had not happened by early Friday.

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(Source: CNN)