“It is inevitable. Change must come,” al-Baradei told the Austrian news agency APA in an interview.
And al-Baradei suggested Egypt’s long-standing presisdent Hosni Mubarak will soon find himself in a similar position unless political reforms are made.
The diplomat, who headed the Vienna-based IAEA agency for 12 years and even won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work there, called for a boycott of Egypt’s presidential elections in September, saying the regime in his home country should be brought to its knees via peaceful demonstrations.
“We’re trying with peaceful means,” he said in comments reproduced in German.
He and his supporters had already collected one million signatures for a petition calling for the democratisation of Egypt.
If more people signed up “then we will have the legitimacy to speak for everyone who has signed,” al-Baradei said.
ElBaradei has been calling for constitutional reforms to allow independents like himself to stand in this year’s election. But the government has dismissed his demands.
It is widely believed in Egypt that 82-year-old incumbent president, who has ruled for 29 years, wants to pass on the baton to his 47-year-old son Gamal Mubarak, a banker who has been pushing for liberal economic reforms.
Al-Baradei said he was setting his hopes on the 60 percent of Egyptians who were younger than 30, “who have no hopes and no future, but above all no ulterior motives.” he said, “People have every reason to live in fear, because they can be arrested and tortured.”
Source: alarabiya.net