Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad said today that a new Middle East is being carved out that will be free of the United States and Israel, as he backed the revolts rocking the Arab world.
Massive crowds of Iranians, waving flags and chanting: "Death to (Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak!" and: "Death to America™!" descended on Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square to listen to the hardliner, who lashed out at the West and Israel in a speech marking the 32nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
"We will soon see a new Middle East materialising without America and the Zionist regime and there will be no room for world arrogance (the West) in it," Ahmadinejad told the cheering crowds, who gathered despite the cold and cloudy weather.
In a speech directed in good part at the Arab uprisings, Ahmadinejad said Egyptians needed to be vigilant of the United States.
"They (the United States) have adopted a friendly face and say 'we are friends of the people of North Africa and Arab countries', but be watchful and united. You will be victorious ... but your path of resistance is a lengthy one," he said.
No diplomatic ties
"The Iranian nation is your friend and it is your right to freely choose your path. The Iranian nation backs this right of yours."
Iran, which has no diplomatic ties with Egypt, has backed mass protests there, now in their 18th straight day, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging the people to establish an Islamic regime in the Arab world's most populous nation.
The expressions of support came despite the deadly crackdown launched by the Iranian authorities when hundreds of thousands erupted into the streets of Tehran and other cities to protest against official results giving Ahmadinejad a second term in a June 2009 presidential election.