Al-Qaeda leader Ayman El-Zawahiri has released a video on the internet in which he says only the imposition of Islamic Sharia law can completely rid Egypt of the Mubarak regime.
El-Zawahiri, who became Al-Qaeda chief after Osama Bin Laden was assassinated last year, said Egypt must stop being at the US's beck and call and begin a new chapter by annulling the Camp David agreement with Israel.
In a 24 minute video titled, "Why did we revolt against him then?" El-Zawahiri said the recent Arab revolts had an Islamic flavour and were directed against rulers who worked as US agents.
"Egypt is not a free trade zone, a US agent, a broker for Israel or a tourism nightclub," El-Zawahiri said. "Egypt is the citadel of Islam and a fort for the Arab world. It should not be transformed into another version of Saudi Arabia which is merely a Crusader agent that applies Islamic law only on the weak."
He also congratulated Muslims for the decline of US power, which he said was revealed by President Barack Obama's reduction of the US military budget.
When Obama revealed the military budget for 2013, he said that it has been reduced for the first time since 1998, El-Zawahiri said.
"The Afghan Mujahideen inflicted the disasters on the US which forced it to shrink its military budget," El-Zawahiri he said.
”Military arrogance" only damages the US, he concluded.
