Sky News TV, February 15, 2011 – Iranian opposition groups are hoping the protest will gain the same momentum as those in Egypt and Tunisia. Dowlat Nowroozi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran spoke to Sky news earlier.
Dowlat Nowroozi: Yes, definitely there has been in my view very strong positive effect. It is very clear from the slogans that people have been chanting on the streets today in Tehran, Bushehr, Shiraz, Kerman, Mashhad, almost all over the country from north to center to the south. They clearly said: yesterday Ben Ali, today in Egypt, now tomorrow Sayd Ali. By sayd Ali they mean to say Khamenei, the supreme religious leader. And they mean to say he must go, and this is the downfall phase of this very brutal dictatorship. So they have understood that actually people’s determination in becoming united to what they want, which is the change of the system. A major change of the system for democracy is the key to the whole and is the solution to the whole crisis in Iran. So definitely the situation in the Middle-east, especially in Tunisia and Egypt has had a tremendous effect on peoples’ determination to be more firm.
Dowlat Nowroozi: The National Council of resistance of Iran is a political coalition that has been formed for over now 2 decades. And its main task, is actually, to organize a nation-wide free election under the auspicious of the United Nations. And that it wants a republican secular democratic pluralistic government based on people sovereignty, not the mullahs religious rule .