The Latest from Iran (4 February): The Supreme Leader's Big Day?

2305 GMT: A Reply to the Supreme Leader. Looks like Ayatollah Khamenei's Friday Prayer has fallen flat with his target audience....

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has issued this response: "[We] regard the revolution as the Egyptian People's Revolution, not an Islamic Revolution....The Egyptian People's Revolution includes Muslims, Christians, from all sects and political [factions]."

2255 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Journalist Mehran Faraji has been released on bail after almost two months in detention.

Faraji had worked with the Presidential campaign of Mehdi Karroubi.

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Egypt Snapshot: The Discussions for Mubarak's Exit (Cooper/Landler)

Helene Cooper and Mark Landler write for The New York Times:

The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

Even though Mr. Mubarak has balked, so far, at leaving now, officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which Mr. Suleiman, backed by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A Big Day --- And Not Just in Cairo

0107 GMT: Fox News reports that an assassination attempt on newly-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman left two people dead this week. Neither Fox nor anyone else has confirmed this story. When asked the question, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had this to say: 

"I'm not going to ... get into that question,"

0100 GMT: Members of hacktivist group Anonymous have targeted the government websites of Yemen and Egypt in solidarity with the protests in those country against the dictators. They used Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks to make websites unavailable for viewing. 

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Egypt Special Analysis: Can a Day of Departure Avoid a Day of Bloodshed?

For all the significance of the Battle of Tahrir Square and the continuing protests across Egypt, the breaking story last night was this US proposal:

Officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which Mr. Suleiman, backed by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.

The proposal also calls for the transitional government to invite members from a broad range of opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to begin work to open up the country’s electoral system in an effort to bring about free and fair elections in September, the officials said.

This was the proposition put to Mubarak by President Obama's envoy Frank Wisner when he arrived in Cairo on Sunday. And it was the plan that Mubarak rudely kicked away with his speech on Tuesday night, symbolically torched when his supporters laid siege to the opposition on Wednesday, and ground into the dust with the pursuit of journalists on Thursday.

So does the President now accept a fate which is not in power --- even until September --- but in an immediate departure, leaving perhaps a shred of the pride that he has bee citing all week?

Or, with the anti-regime protesters facing the prospect of either breaking out or suffering another day of siege in Tahrir Square, do they march? And does that march bring the last line of protection of Mubarak: a wielding of violence by the groups that appeared on Wednesday and --- much more importantly --- the military?

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Israel Document: Netanyahu on the Dangers of Change

"One possible scenario, which undoubtedly unites us all, is that these hopes for democracy and a gradual, stable reform process are realized in Egypt. 

However, this is not the only possible scenario.  Because far away from Washington, Paris, London --- and not so far from Jerusalem --- is another capital in which there are hopes.

In this capital, there are leaders who can also see the opportunities that change in Egypt could bring.  They also support the millions who took to the streets.  They too speak about the promise of a new day.  But for the people in this capital, the promise of a new day is not in its dawn but in the darkness it can bring.

That capital is Tehran, and I assure you, that the leaders in Iran are not interested in the genuine desires of Egyptians for freedom, liberalization or reform, any more than they were interested in answering similar calls for freedom by the Iranian people, their own people, only 18 months ago."

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Egypt in Pictures: Thursday's Scenes of Defiance

Also See --- Egypt in Pictures: The Battle of Tahrir Square
Also See --- Egypt in Pictures: The Women of the Protests 

A Message to US President Barack Obama

Wednesday: Christians Protect Praying Muslims

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The Latest from Iran (3 February): Glancing at Cairo

2120 GMT: The "Right" Egyptian Revolution. How much is Tehran playing up Egypt? To the point where almost all the story on Press TV's "Iran" section after actually about Cairo....

The military advisor to the Supreme Leader, Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, suggests that some of the opposition figures are not "right" for Iran: “By introducing several people as [protest] leaders, the US is seeking to pave the way for creating rifts amidst the Egyptian nation and to use the outcome to its own advantage.”

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani is also setting out Good and Bad for the demonstrators, warning anti-regime protesters in Egypt over the dangers of a “secular revolution".

So what is the right path? MP Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam helps out, “Thanks to the Islamic Revolution, Islam and Shiism is cultivating in the world and this revolutionary culture is Islamic.”

The Foreign Ministry says it is monitoring the "wave of Islamic awakening".

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Palestine Snapshot: Will Egypt and Tunisia Examples Bring Change?

UPDATE 1000 GMT: On Wednesday, officials in Ramallah initiated pro-Mubarak demonstrations as people condemned Mohamed ElBaradei as a “CIA agent”. Fatah-controlled media outlets called him a“war criminal”, blaming responsibility for the Iraq war.   

Haaretz's Amira Haaas asks: "Why isn't the PA supporting Egypt uprising?"

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Battle of Tahrir Square

0200 GMT: With relative quiet in Egypt, we're going to take a break until Scott Lucas resumes in a few hours with the Friday LiveBlog.

0118 GMT: Al Jazeera TV just announced that Reuters quoting the New York Times reports that the US is discussing a proposal with Egyptian proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and for a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman to take power. We cannot confirm this as of yet. 

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Latest Egypt Video: The Battle of Tahrir Square in Cairo

Anti-Mubarak protester gives graphic early-morning account of the battle: "Why do we have to lose people? Nobody's stopping it"

Pro-Mubarak horseriders attack

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