Iranian government "scared" by Egypt upheaval: W.House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A clampdown by the Iranian government on media coverage of the unrest in Egypt exposes how deeply the authorities in Tehran fear their own people, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.

"What you've seen in the region is the government of Iran, quite frankly, scared of the will of its people," Gibbs said. "The government of Iran ... has met ... the concerns of its people with threatening to kill them."

The BBC said Iran was electronically jamming its Persian language television broadcasts of the protests in Egypt, which earlier on Friday forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down and hand control to the country's army.

Asked if the White House would like to see a similar transition in Tehran, Gibbs said the important thing was that the Iranian authorities respect freedom of speech.

"The administration would like to see the ability of the people of Iran to voice what they'd like to see from their government," he told a news briefing at the White House.

The BBC said it suspected the Iranian authorities may have acted after an interactive TV show allowed Iranian and Egyptian viewers to exchange their views on the crisis.

Iran has previously accused the BBC and other Western broadcasters of interfering in its affairs and trying to undermine the government.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told celebrations on Friday marking the 32nd anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution that Egyptian upheaval was an "Islamic awakening." This was a reference to the uprising that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979 and swept the Shi'ite Muslim clergy to power.

Most opposition groups in Egypt, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, have stressed the secular nature of their protests.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Eric Beech)