Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group

Iran and Turkey have both criticized a US plan to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters in Doha on Wednesday that “the US is not in a position to (..) start naming others as terror organizations and we reject by any attempt by the US in this regard.”

“The US is supporting the biggest terrorist in the region, that is Israel,” Zarif said.

Turkey, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that if the United States designated the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, it would hamper democratization efforts in the Middle East and serve militant groups like ISIS.

Omer Celik, the spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party, said such a decision by the US would “undoubtedly yield extremely wrong results regarding stability, human rights, basic rights and freedoms in countries of the Islamic world”, he said.

“At the same time, (Trump’s move) is the biggest support that can be given to the propaganda of Daesh,” he said, referring to ISIS.

President Donald Trump is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, the White House said on Tuesday, which would lead to sanctions against Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.