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Brotherhood Guide Urges Opposition To ‘U.S. Project’
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“They are threatening to strike Syria and Iran now that Libya has surrendered,” Akef
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CAIRO,
January 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The new spiritual
leader of Muslim Brotherhood called on Arabs and others in the
Muslim world to oppose the United States, which he said was
threatening Syria and Iran after having occupied Iraq.
Mohammed
Mehdi Akef, 76, was
appointed last week following the death
of Maamoun al-Hodeibi, who died a week earlier at the age of 83.
“(The)
American project in the region is clear: they have established
permanent military bases, occupied Afghanistan and Iraq and control
the most important oil reserves in the world,” Mahdi said in a
statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP) late Thursday, January
22.
“They
are threatening to strike Syria and Iran now that Libya has
surrendered,” he said, in reference to Tripoli's renunciation last
month of its program of weapons of mass destruction after nine months
of secret talks with the United States and Britain.
“Arab
and Islamic regimes are looking on powerless at all this, as if they
were not concerned,” he said.
Catastrophe
Akef
said that hope rather lies with the people.
“But
if they (Arab regimes) do not rise up at the opportune moment,
catastrophe will result, and other capitals could fall after
Baghdad,” he said.
Turning
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Muslim Brotherhood said it is
“shameful to remain silent” in the face of the drama faced by
“our brothers in Palestine”.
“Both,
as governments and as peoples, we would stand at their side and
provide them with all the material and moral support they need,” the
statement said.
The
least that could be done, Akef believed, is “boycotting the products
of the Zionist enemy and those who support it”.
The
outlawed but tolerated movement, which advocates establishing an
Islamic state using peaceful means, supports 16 deputies in Egypt’s
454-member parliament, making it the main opposition force in Egypt,
AFP said.
Muslim
Brotherhood is represented in other Arab countries, including Jordan
and Syria where it was severely repressed.
Akef
said in an exclusive interview with IslamOnline.net shortly after his
appointment that was ready to
set up a political party immediately should the Egyptian
government give it the green-light.
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