DUBAI, June 17: Al Jazeera television on Friday aired excerpts of a new videotape of Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri in which it said he “criticized the US concept of reform” as well as assaults on women protesters in Egypt last month.

The Qatar-based news channel, which showed Zawahiri with a machine gun next to him and paraphrased his remarks, said it would air larger excerpts of the tape at 1830 GMT (1130pm PST).

Al-Jazeera said the Egyptian-born Zawahiri slammed the Pakistani, Saudi and Egyptian governments.

It did not say when the tape was recorded, but the remarks attributed to Zawahiri referred to demonstrations in Egypt last month during which female activists protesting against the nature of a constitutional referendum submitted to Egyptians on May 25 and several female reporters were molested by civilian-clothed ruling party supporters.

Osama bin Laden’s second in command “criticized what he deemed to be violations of women’s rights during demonstrations demanding an amendment of the constitution in Egypt,” Al-Jazeera said.—AFP