Mousavi on Recent Arab Protests

Mousavi makes a major statement on the protests that are rocking Egypt and other Arab countries:

The Middle East is on the verge of defining and massive moments which can change the course of the destiny of this region, the world and the fate of other nations in the region. What is taking shape now is certainly overthrowing a despotic and tyrannical rule and trend which has been overwhelming the fate of many nations in the region. The starting point of what we are now witnessing on the streets of Tunis, Sanaa, Cairo, Alexandria and Suez can be undoubtedly traced back to days of 15th, 18th and 20th June 2009 when people took to the streets of Tehran in millions shouting “Where is my vote?” and peacefully demanded to get back their denied rights.

Today, the slogan of “Where is my vote?” of the people of Iran has reached Egypt and transformed into “The people want the overthrow of the regime”. In order to discover the secret of these links and these similarities, one does not have to go too far. You just have to compare the recent elections in Egypt with our own and compare it with the chairman of the Guardian Council who explicitly says there is no need for millions of votes by Green citizens. If we look at the collapsing political regimes in the Arab world and the Middle East carefully, we can identify a similar pattern of invading and shutting down social networks, the press and the cyber space. In an amazingly similar fashion, they have all blocked SMS systems, mobile phones and the internet, have banned all writers and taken dissidents to prisons.

Unfortunately, the interests of the ruling ideology in Iran do not allow the realities to be revealed as they are. The preachers of the obedient public outlets fail to pay any attention to the corrupt and despotic methods of the present day pharaoh of Egypt, who has created an explosive situation in his country by arrests, forced confessions, framing people and looting the nations through gangs and organised groups of the people surrounding them. They do refer to the ‘Wrath of the people” of Egypt, but they never explain that this day of wrath has come about as a consequence of inefficiency and corruption at the highest levels of stat, extravagance and wasting people’s funds, censorship, shutting people down, executions and lining up gallows to create fear in people. They never say that if the ruling system of Egypt had respected people’s right to determining their own destiny and had not tampered with people’s votes in the recent elections of Egypt, they would not have to face the demand for the ‘overthrow of the regime’ by the dear nation of Egypt. Perhaps, they do not realise that continuing policies of intimidation will eventually turn against itself and then the coming of “the day of wrath” and days of national wrath will be inevitable. Pharaohs usually hear the voice of the nation when it is too late.

Our nation deeply respects the glorious uprising of the brave people of Tunis and that of the people of Egypt, Yemen and other countries in quest for their rights. We commend the courageous, cognisant and resisting people of Egypt, Tunis, Jordan and Yemen and we pray to Allah that they may be successful and victorious in their struggle for their rights.