Egyptian anti-government demonstrators carry a flag of Tunisia and Egypt at Tahrir Square in Cairo on February 6, 2011. The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia helped spark the arab spring movements in North Africa and the Middle East. UPI |
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TEHRAN, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- There will be major problems in the Muslim world if Western powers are allowed to exploit the so-called Arab Spring, Iran's supreme leader warned.
A protest suicide sparked the Jasmine Revolution in December that ended Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali's tenure after more than 23 years in power. That revolution spilled over to Egypt, ending President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade grip on power, and threatens similar regimes in Yemen, Syria and Libya.
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, warned Muslim nations they had a "very important and sensitive responsibility" to prevent Western nations from hijacking the revolutions in those countries.
He said if "arrogant powers," a reference to the West, "take the lead" in the Arab Spring, the Muslim world will "definitely" face "big problems" for several decades, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reported.
Washington expressed recent concern that Iran was helping the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad with his brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters. Iran is also accused of aiding Shiite militias in Iraq and serving as a close ally to Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Khamenei noted Iran, however, has been able to act as a bulwark against the West since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
