Following the wave of anti-regime protests in the Middle East it is only a matter of time before Iran will be confronted with a revolution, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta predicted. If such protests erupt in Iran, the United States should take every step to support such an effort but analyze the situation to ensure that nothing is done to undermine it he said. The reform movement in Iran is learning a lot from what has happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria he declared. Iran's leaders have hoped the Arab Spring would bring an end to the U.S. backed regimes in the Arab World. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the events the Islamic Awakening saying it has been inspired by Iran's 1979 revolution that replaced a Western backed king with a Muslim theocracy.