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Because there is a process of change that, i think, will affect the whole of the region. people want a different system of government. they're going to get it. the question is, then, what emerges from that? and in particular, i think the key challenge for us, really, is how do we help partner this process of change and help manage it in such a way that what comes out of it is open-minded, fair, democratic government? >> nobody seems quite sure what to say about president mubarak. depending on who you talk to, he's been a force for good or a force for evil. the people are clearly in egypt makin...

The fact is there were people in iraq who tried to rise up, if you remember. the kurds in particular, and hundreds of thousands of them died as a result. so that was never going to happen there. i would prefer to see change from the bottom up in iran right now. i mean, that is a country where if you had a free and fair election, i've got no doubt at all you'd have a different government and a government that would be for a better for the stability of the rengion. but that's not possible to do. and what's happened with egypt, particularly with the army playing the role it's playing, is that the...

I don't really understand where he's considered to be acceptable, where someone like saddam hussein had to be got rid of. >> first of all, let's be very clear, piers. hosni mubarak is not saddam hussein. saddam hussein had a gdp roughly the equivalent of portugal and spain and devastated it. hosni mubarak has presided over an egyptian economy that's something like doubled in the last decade. but i don't think the west should be embarrassed by the fact that they've been working very closely with mubarak in the peace process, which it has, by the way, but at the same time, it's been urging chang...

Believe that peace is now more or less likely the way things stand today? >> it's extremely difficult to tell. the one thing i do know is that peace between the israelis and the palestinians is of huge importance to the stability of the region, but also to those modernizing and forward looking forces in the region triumphing over those who would take the region and the world backwards. so whatever the next few months brings, we've got to carry on working flat out on this. there's actually, i mean, i will be going back to israel and palestine very shortly, within the next couple of days. we've ...

And that is to the people of egypt are going to have a democracy, an opportunity to vote, to have a say in the course of their lives and government, and hopefully economic freedom as well. and direct hit. the mother of all storms lashes the u.s. how big will this be, but more important, how deadly? this is a special edition of "piers morgan tonight." good evening. president obama was on the phone for half an hour tonight with president hosni mubarak. he called for a moment of transformation in egypt and said the status quo is simply not sustainable. >> after his speech tonight, i spoke dir...