Iran Cheers on Egyptian Unrest as Harbinger of New Middle East By: David Rosenberg | The Media Line

Iran Cheers on Egyptian Unrest as Harbinger of New Middle East
By: David Rosenberg | The Media Line

But analysts say Tehran should be worried that its Syrian ally will face turmoil

Official Iran is cheering on Egypt’s opposition – portraying the protestors at Cairo’s Tahrir Square as heirs to the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Shah – but analysts said Tehran should really be worrying about unrest spreading to its Syrian ally.

The protests that have swept that Arab world over the past six weeks have shaken governments friendliest to the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s arch foes in the contest for regional influence in the Middle East. Tunisia’s president was sent into exile three weeks ago and Egyptian President Husni Mubarak has failed to suppress unrest, now in its 10th day. Jordan and Yemen have been hit by protests as well.

 “Iran’s Islamic Revolution became a role model for the Egyptian nation. Without doubt the Egyptian dictator will share the same destiny as that of Iran’s dictator,” Tehran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi said in Wednesday. Ahmad Lotfi, an Iranian lawmaker, this week termed the unrest in the region as “the awakening of freedom-seeking nations and weakening of arrogant powers,” the term Tehran uses to describe the U.S.

“The Iranian government -- the whole political establishment -- wants the revolution to spread,” Seyed Mohammad Marandi, an associate professor of North American Studies at the University of Tehran, told The Media Line.  “They not only want the Egyptian regime to be swept away but for the revolution to spread.”