BRUSSELS, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The Iranian ambassador to the European Union said his country welcomes the departure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Ali Asghar Kaji also said Egyptians should remember the EU and United States backed Mubarak for years and that U.S. President Barack Obama gave his 2009 speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, the EUobserver reported.
"It is very important that the Egyptian people have taken a step toward realizing their objectives," he told the EUobserver Friday. "The coincidence that this took place on the anniversary (of the Iranian revolution) is a good omen."
Kaji said Iran is not worried the kind of popular revolt that has toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt could spread to its streets.
"You must remember that the Iranian state is also the product of a popular revolution," he said.
Iran's official line is that the protests in Egypt and elsewhere resemble those that toppled the shah of Iran in 1979. But the Iranian government has also arrested prominent opposition leaders and placed others under house arrest for calling a mass protest Monday in Tehran.
