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Earlier, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had intervened in Friday prayers, styling the Egypt protests as an uprising against President Hosni Mubarak, a “”servant” of Israel and the United States.

“It is remarkable that Iran would make a statement given their actions when it came to their people exercising the same rights that people are exercising now in Cairo,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs was referring to mass protests in Iran following the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a June 2009 election that opponents said was rigged.

Tehran, which severed diplomatic ties with Cairo in 1980, has backed the revolt in Egypt and warned Washington against “interfering” in what it says is a movement of the people.-AFP