TEHRAN – Iran on Sunday praised Egypt’s “revolution of the noble” and slammed Western governments’ “backward” reaction to the uprising in the Arab nation, state media reported.
“The voice of the brave people of Egypt is the voice of revolution. The start of this revolution has astonished the despotic regimes of the region,” parliament speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
“The parliament supports the uprising of the Tunisian and Egyptian people,” Larijani said, describing the protests as “the revolution of the noble.” Iran’s new foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi also hoped that Egyptians’ “high aims, national demands and resurrection of their glory could be achieved in the very near future.”
Larijani likened the Western states’ position on Egypt to “supporting the Shah during the Islamic revolution” which toppled the US-backed monarch in 1979. “Their analysis of Islamic countries is still backward,” he said at the beginning of an open session of the parliament.
On Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry called on Egyptian leaders to submit to “justice-seeking” demands and avoid violence as thousands of protesters clashed with troops in the Arab nation. Tehran-Cairo ties were severed in 1980 following the Islamic revolution in Iran and Egypt’s recognition of Israel. The two countries have since only maintained interest sections in their respective capitals.
In 2009, Iran itself was shaken by massive anti-government protests triggered by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election. Dozens were killed as security forces heavily cracked down on opposition supporters. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said those demonstrations served to inspire the Tunisia uprising and the mass protests in Egypt, blaming the anger of protesters on Arab streets on “inefficiency and corruption at the top level of government.”
