Muslim Brotherhood rejects Saudi terror accusations

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has rejected “false accusations” of terrorism by Saudi Arabia following a diplomatic rift among the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region.

In a statement on its website on Wednesday, a Cairo-based wing of the movement called on the Saudi kingdom to cease its support for military-backed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

"The Kingdom's insistence on backing the obscene putschist (Egyptian) regime, providing it with financial and political support, attacking the moderate Islamist movement represented in the Muslim Brotherhood, and accusing it of terrorism, puts the Kingdom's credibility at stake," the Brotherhood statement read.

In Egypt, the Brotherhood made history after its presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, became the country’s first ever democratically-elected president in 2012 before being ousted in a military coup one year later.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood since the coup, which saw then army chief Sisi become president.

The Saudi regime is considered as the main backer of Sisi's rule over the North African country.

Elsewhere in the statement, the movement also advised Riyadh not to listen to the rulers of the United Arab Emirates, whom it called "corrupt."

"Do not listen to the princes of oppression and injustice in the UAE, those corrupt men are a plague on the (Islamic) nation and the Kingdom both. They are the cohorts of Zionists and finances of oppression and obscenity," it added.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates broke off relations with Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism and destabilizing the region. They also suspended all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar, ejected its diplomats and ordered Qatari citizens to leave their countries.

Qatar has long denied funding extremists, with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, rejecting those “trying to impose their will on Qatar or intervene in its internal affairs.”

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday that Qatar must take several steps including ending its alleged support for the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to restore ties with Persian Gulf Arab countries.

The top Saudi diplomat further accused Qatar of undermining the Palestinian Authority and Egypt through its support for the resistance movement Hamas and the Brotherhood.

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