CERNOBBIO, Italy — Amr Moussa, a leading candidate for the presidency of Egypt, said that he had warned Hosni Mubarak days before his fall to call off security forces who attacked demonstrators but was ignored by an authoritarian ruler who seemed convinced he could ride out the popular uprising. In an interview with The Associated Press at an economic conference in Italy, Moussa predicted that embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad would fall as well — and that democracy would spread across the region. "I hope that all of them, including the Syrian regime, will understand that this is a historic trend. There's no U-turn in it. People have spoken. They cannot get back to the normal life (of) the last 10, 20, 30 or 60 years," Moussa said Friday. "If they don't, it's a matter of time. ... The situation now is untenable." Moussa said that as secretary-general of the Arab League earlier this year he encountered opposition to a tough hand against Syria because there was a desire to prioritize Libya's descent into civil war — but there was also opposition to a direct Arab intervention in Libya. Instead the 22-member organization called on the world community to enforce a no-fly zone over the country and acquiesced to the NATO operation that last month succeeded in helping the rebels overthrow Moammar Gadhafi. "Gadhafi was so adamant," recalled Moussa, who left his League post earlier this year after a decade in the job and is now focusing on his run for president. "He was ready to pay any price to quell the opposition." In the case of Syria, he said, the Arab League would be more proactive: "I believe that the Arab League will vote (to) intervene — an Arab intervention to protect the population, I don't know whether military or not. It was not available in the Libyan case, because I tried it and I did not succeed." "I do expect the success of the revolution in Syria."
