Iran slams move to brand Brotherhood terrorists

Doha - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday criticised the United States for seeking to blacklist the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. “The United States is supporting the biggest terrorist in our region, and that is Israel,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Doha.

“Trying to designate others as terrorists, the United States (is) not in a position, theoretically and practically, to start naming others as terrorist organisations,” he said when asked about US President Donald Trump’s bid to designate the Brotherhood as a terrorist group. “We reject any attempt by the United States in this regard.”

In April, the US declared Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

Placing the Brotherhood on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organisations would make it a crime for any American to assist the group and would ban from the United States its members, who are active in political parties in several countries.

Meanwhile, Iran said Wednesday it hopes to have good relations with Saudi Arabia and its allies, and called for an end to their bitter dispute with Qatar. Riyadh broke off relations with Tehran in 2016 after protesters angry at its execution of a top Shiite cleric torched its diplomatic missions in Iran.

The following year the kingdom and its allies Bahrain and the UAE imposed a trade and travel boycott on Qatar for its support for extremists and close ties with Iran.

“We have extremely good relations with Qatar, Kuwait, Oman,” Zarif said. “We hope to have the same type of relations with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.”