By IRNA,
London : What is happening in Egypt has potential implications much wider than the Arab World, according to journalist and political analyst Sajid Ali Khan.
“My view is wider: a strong Turkey, a strong Egypt, a strong Iran revolutionises the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and surrounding areas,” said Khan, former editor of World Affairs.
Most analysis of the uprising in Egypt have spoken of the possible ‘domino effect” in the Arab World, being by far the largest country of 80 million and the implications it holds for the West’s relations and for Israel.
In an interview with IRNA, Khan suggested that the Egyptian protests taking place were a “blockbuster” event compared with the earlier “firecracker” in Tunisia that saw President Ben Ali escape from the country.
But he expressed caution against drawing simplistic parallel with the collapse of communist governments in Eastern European countries in the late 1980s, where he said there had been different factors.
”It is necessary to recognise that we are not comparing like with like,” he said, briefly listing what happened in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“Practically all Arab countries suffer from not being allowed to express normal opinions,” Khan said, but pointed out that difference can be explored one by one.
He also accepted that were common factors in each like youthful and rapidly growing populations face rising food prices, high unemployment and lack of political representation, with many also ruled by aging autocrats facing succession issues.
“These are all contributing factors going back to a long period of exploitation by European Colonising looters from which they have yet to recover,” Khan said.
He believed that the West could have acted earlier in bringing about reforms, but said that “now they can only look and gnash their teeth.”