Brussels, 16 April (AKI) - Egyptian opposition leader and political dissident Ayman Nour says the government has been "foolish" in its crackdown on alleged members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement. Last week, Egypt announced the arrest of 49 members of a Hezbollah cell suspected to be operating inside Egypt and planning attacks on both Egyptian and Israeli targets.

"We agree with Hezbollah and its resistance and we respect its historic battle for the liberation of Lebanese territory (from Israeli occupation), even if we do not approve of its orientation," said Nour in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).

Egypt claimed the men who were arrested were commissioned by Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah to destabilise the country and its leadership by carrying out terror attacks. Nasrallah has denied the accusations and called them fabrications.

According to Nour, tension between the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah and Egypt reflects the rift between predominantly Shia Iran and mainly Sunni Egypt.

Nour also criticised the way in which Egypt, Syria and Iran handled the latest crisis in the Gaza Strip in December and January and said Egypt's position "damages the image and reputation of the country."

The government of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was widely criticised in the Arab world for failing to open the border crossings with Gaza for humanitarian aid during the Israeli offensive which killed at least 1,330 Palestinians and caused widespread destruction in the coastal strip.

Nour also launched an appeal to the international community to work for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, but in particular the prominent Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.

"He (Barghouti) could play an important role in an eventual peace process in the Middle East," Nour told AKI.

Nour attacked Arab regimes who according to him have benefited from the conflict between Palestinian and Israelis.

"These regimes take advantage from the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that is how they establish their legitimacy," he said.

Nour then denied that his centrist, liberal and secular party El-Ghad had anything in common with Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Kefaya movement as well as other parties have common goals, but we do not share a strategy. On the contrary, we have reservations in regards to the Brotherhood's position about women, Copts, etcetera."

According to Nour, the El-Ghad party believes in the democratic transfer of power and religious and social tolerance. But he said in Egypt there was a great deal of tension and anger, due to the political and economic situation in the country.

"I hope that people will not rise up and revolt," Nour said.

Forty-four-year-old Nour was released from a Cairo prison on 18 February 2009 after more than four years, in what some commentators interpreted as a "goodwill gesture" to US president Barack Obama.

He was charged by the government with forging powers of attorney to secure the formation of his party before the last presidential election in 2005, but he denied the charges.

Nour is Egypt's best-known political dissident and some believe him to be the strongest challenger to authoritarian president Mubarak.

Nour has been banned from politics for a period of six years after his release. He received 13 percent of the vote in what was Egypt's first multi-party presidential elections in 2005 since Mubarak came to power in 1981 .

Mubarak won a fifth consecutive six-year presidential office, with official results showing he won 88.6 percent of the votes cast. His son Jamal - chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party - is tipped to be his successor.

Tensions between Shia Hezbollah and predominantly Sunni Egypt have been running high after Nasrallah accused Egypt of siding with Israel in its siege of the Gaza Strip.