Egyptian Former Senior Mubarak Regime Official Hussam Badrawi: Israel Is Our Constant Cultural Enemy – Iran Should Not Be Our Enemy

Hussam Badrawi, a former Egyptian MP who served as a senior official in former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, said in a July 28, 2022 show on Sada Al-Balad TV (Egypt) that dictatorial regimes bring about more progress than democracies. He also argued that the 2011 revolution in Egypt was part of a Western plot against the Arab world that began with the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and he said that part of the plan is to pit Israel and the Arab world against Iran. In addition, he said that Egypt's "constant cultural enemy" is Israel, and that it should not be replaced with Iran.

Interviewer: "You say that dictatorial regimes have advantages, and that democratic regimes have drawbacks."

Hussam Badrawi: "Correct."

Interviewer: "How can you say that?"

Badrawi: "Countries that made great progress were sometimes dictatorships. Was [former Malaysians PM] Mahathir Mohamad a democratic leader? No. Is China a democracy? There is democracy there within the ruling party, but China does not have general democracy. Was President Mubarak capable of solving the problem of the slums? Of course he was. Dictatorial rule enables you to take shortcuts sometimes. It allows you to take the fast-track towards reforms, because nobody cares about potential grievances by the people. On the other hand, every dictatorship ends with revolutions, crises, assassinations, and so on.

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"I believe that there is a plot that has been active ever since the Sykes-Picot Agreement — from the days of the geopolitical partition, to partition across ethnic lines, and to religious conflicts.

"After the 2011 Revolution, which began in a beautiful way, in my opinion — the young people there wanted respect and power, they did not want what the Muslim Brotherhood wanted — I met a senior official in the UK, a friend of mine. She was the parliament speaker. I asked her: 'Why are you doing this?' She said: 'If you quote me, I will deny it, but this is something that we have agreed upon already back in 2004 or 2005 — that we would bring moderate Islam to power, and you would fight amongst yourselves, and leave us alone.' I asked her: 'And what about the rest of the people?' She said to me: 'Don't be upset with me, but this is a secondary issue.' Are you asking me whether there was a conspiracy? Of course there was.

"Does this conspiracy continue today? In my political view, it certainly does. The proof is what is going on now with Israel, and its agreements with some of the Arab countries. At the end of the day, they want to pit Israel and you against Iran.

"But what problem does Egypt have with Iran? We really have no problem with Iran whatsoever."

Interviewer: "President [Al-Sisi] said that any dialogue [with Iran] must be peaceful."

Badrawi: "Exactly. Even Saudi Arabia is conducting peaceful negotiations [with Iran]. But they want to pit the [countries of the] region against one another. Who created ISIS?"

Interviewer: "They did."

Badrawi: "Well, thank you very much. They created ISIS..."

Interviewer: "But can we deny that Iran is hatching regional plots?"

Badrawi: "Of course it does, but all of this should be resolved through dialogue. We should not replace our perpetual cultural enemy — Israel — with Iran."