Mystery still surrounds the surprise resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a day after announcing the transfer of some powers to his deputy. The Israeli TV quoted late Friday remarks attributed to Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a former minister and a close friend of the Egyptian leader, as saying Mubarak had slammed the United States, during a telephone conversation on Thursday. Mubarak described the behavior of the United States as "the wrong effort to establish democracy in the Middle East."
Ben-Eliezer said that he his last telephone conversation with Mubarak lasted over 20 minutes. During the talk, Mubarak told the Israeli member of parliament that "the army informed him that he could not defend him." "He gave me a lesson about democracy in the Middle East mentioning Iran and Hamas in Gaza." "Maybe they talk about democracy, but they do not know what they are talking about and the result will be extreme and radical Islam," Mubarak was quoted as saying.
Ben-Eliezer said that Mubarak has talked at length during the telephone conversation on "what to expect in the Middle East after his fall." "He expected the civil unrest will not stop in Egypt and no other state will be safe " Ben-Eliezer said Mubarak told him "he would not be surprised if in the future, the Middle East will see more extremism, radical Islam and unrest." Ben-Eliezer said that Mubarak was "looking for a graceful exit."
He added that Mubarak repeated the sentence "I served my country Egypt for 61 years. Do you want me to run away? I will not run away ..."
