Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure to speak with you again.
I think we have to be realistic about what historical transition to democracy entails. It took Europe four centuries of wars and genocides to achieve democracy.
I just returned from Tripoli in Libya. After 40 years of dictatorship and the mass atrocities of the Gaddafi regime, Libya is not going to be transformed into Sweden overnight. It's going to take time. Developing these institutions requires considerable experience.
I would say that Iran actually is far ahead of the curve compared to the Arab world, because Iran had its ideological revolution 30 years ago. When I was in Tahrir Square recently, in Cairo, and I saw all the romanticization of political Islam, it reminded me of what Iran was like 30 years ago. The one place in the Middle East where no one wants an Islamic republic is Iran, because people have lived under one for 30 years. That's why the civil society movement in Iran is thoroughly secular. Even devout Muslims in Iran who were in the Green Movement want a secular state because they believe that religion and politics don't mix. That's why Iran's transformation would also affect the Arab world.
What we have now is a situation where Iran and Saudi Arabia, which are engaged in proxy wars and power struggles, are both trying to hijack these movements in the Arab world for their own purposes. In Egypt, Saudi Arabia has given millions of dollars to extremist Salafist movements because it doesn't want secular democratic movements that are going to come back and create problems in Saudi Arabia. In Iran there's support for the Assad regime because Iran fears the loss of its only regional ally.
That's the context within which we should understand that if and when the regime changes in Iran, it will just be the beginning of a long and painful process of building a democratic culture and system.