Turkey’s AK Party: U.S. move against Muslim Brotherhood would damage democracy in Middle East

Reuters|Published:  04.30.19 , 23:59

The spokesman for Turkey’s ruling AK Party said on Tuesday that if the United States designated the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organisation, it would hamper democratisation efforts in the Middle East and serve militant groups like Islamic State.

 

The White House said on Tuesday President Donald Trump was working to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organisation, a step that would bring sanctions against Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.

 

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked Trump to make the designation, which Egypt has already done, in a private meeting during

an April 9 visit to Washington, a senior U.S. official said, confirming a report in the New York Times.

 

Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party, said such a decision by the United States 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 Islamic State.

 

Despite being NATO allies, Turkey and the United States are currently at loggerheads mainly over their opposing interests in Syria and Ankara’s plans to buy Russian missile defences.

Content retrieved from: https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5501966,00.html.

About The Author