MADRID: Popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt will have "enormous influence" on the Arab world, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said in an interview published Monday. "The winds of change are blowing on the Arab world and on the Middle East," the Egyptian told Spain's leading daily El Pais. "The influence of the great Egyptian revolution and the initial revolution in Tunisia will be enormous." The uprisings in Tunisia and then Egypt have spread through the Middle East and North Africa, with unrest in Libya, where hundreds have been killed according to Human Rights Watch, the center of Bahrain held by the opposition and protests in Morocco and Iran. Moussa, 74, who was Egyptian foreign minister from 1991 to 2001, also confirmed that he has not ruled out running in presidential elections in the country. "I have already said that I want first of all to be a private Egyptian citizen and after that, according to the circumstances, I will decide if I will be a candidate for this position or not," Moussa, whose second term as head of the 22-member league ends in two months, told El Pais. As to whether he believes it is the right time to pass judgment on ousted president Hosni Mubarak, he replied "if there is something against him, we will see. For the moment, he is retired, we must treat him as an ex-president, with all the respect he deserves."
