TEHRAN: The Egyptian uprising needs a leader like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in comments published on Thursday.
"A leader like Imam Khomeini is needed for Egypt," Rafsanjani said in an interview with the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, adding that only a leader like Khomeini can "resist the cheating of America."
"In the end, Americans do not want the Egyptian uprising to drag on, while Israelis are completely against the revolution in Egypt," said Rafsanjani, who is a leading supporter of the opposition to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"By coincidence, all things (in Egypt) are like Iran" in 1979, he added.
Rafsanjani, who served two terms as Iranian president, said he was optimistic about the revolt in Egypt but stressed that the protesters needed to go the distance and be willing to endure hardships.
"If the Egyptian people continue to resist, they will succeed. It needs endurance. We too endured a lot of hardships in order to triumph over the shah," he said.
"I am optimistic, if the Egyptians continue their resistance," he said, calling on the protesters to stay united. "Division will benefit America and Israel," he warned.
Iranian officials have expressed strong support for the mass protests against veteran Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, now in their third week, which have sent shock waves around the Arab world.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Egyptians to establish an Islamic state in the Arab world's most populous nation.
Once a pillar of the Islamic republic, Rafsanjani turned critic after bitterly disputed official results of a June 2009 presidential election gave Ahmadinejad outright victory over a challenger he backed.
The former president has called repeatedly for the release of political prisoners detained during the mass protests that followed the election.
Iranian officials have backed the popular uprisings in both Egypt and Tunisia even though the authorities cracked down with an iron fist when tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against Ahmadinejad's new term.
Dozens of people were killed, hundreds wounded and thousands arrested during the crackdown which divided Iran's dominant Shiite clergy.
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