KUWAITI BROTHERHOOD DENIES TERRORIST LISTING IN SAUDI AND UAE
Kuwait City, 18 Jumadil Awwal 1435/19 March 2014 (MINA) – A senior member of the Islamic Constitutional Movement, a Sunni Islamist party in Kuwait affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and known in Arabic by the acronym Hadas, denied claims that the authorities in Saudi Arabia and the UAE had officially informed the party’s members that Hadas is now included on the terrorist list in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
The senior official told Kuwait’s Al-Watan newspaper on Tuesday that rumours in this regard are untrue and unrealistic because the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait has no members list, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Last week, international media reported that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had arrested two members of the Muslim Brotherhood after the Egyptian authorities put out an international arrest warrant for them on charges of inciting violence in Port Said, following the Egyptian authorities fierce crackdown against anti-coup protesters that killed hundreds.
However, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt denied on Monday news of the arrests.
Since the coup that deposed the Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt last July, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have declared the movement a terrorist organisation.
Saudi Arabia has threatened to block Qatar by land and sea amid a simmering row between the two Arab states over Doha’s links with the Muslim Brotherhood and the role of al-Jazeera television station.
According to a report published by US-based newspaper Huffington Post, the threats were made during a private meeting between the foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states in Riyadh last week before Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain announced the withdrawal of their ambassadors from Qatar.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal reportedly said only the severance of ties with the Brotherhood, closure of al-Jazeera broadcaster and expulsion of two US think tanks – identified as Brookings Doha Center and the Rand Qatar Policy Institute — would be sufficient to prevent Qatar from “being punished.”
Qatar is reportedly not taking the threat of a sea blockade seriously, but its land border with Saudi Arabia could easily be closed by Saudi forces.
On March 7, Saudi Arabia listed Muslim Brotherhood along with several other groups as terrorist organizations. According to the new law, those who join or back the groups could face five to 30 years in jail.
The Saudi move, which was slammed by the Brotherhood, came after Egypt’s military-backed interim government decided to label the group a terrorist organization last December after the ouster of the country’s Brotherhood-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, in July. (T/P04/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
