US marginalization of mature Muslim groups behind Wahhabi recruitment: Iran

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has criticized the United States for marginalizing mature Muslim groups, saying this complicity is to blame for the recruitment of Wahhabi extremist.

News ID: ۷۷۷۰۵۳

17 June 2017

“Fearmongering about Iran misled the West to tolerate global promotion of Wahhabism, resulting in al-Qaeda, ISIS (Daesh) and Nusra (currently known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham),” Zarif said in the first of three posts on his official Twitter account on Tuesday, PressTV reported.

“US complicity in marginalizing mature Muslim groups will again leave the field wide open for Wahhabist extremist recruitment,” he added.

The top Iranian diplomat also emphasized the significance of establishing an inclusive Regional Dialogue Forum in the Persian Gulf given the recent developments in the region.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, the Maldives, and Egypt recently broke off ties with Qatar. In their apparent bid to secure US support and that of Israel, the four countries cited Qatar's links with Hamas and accused it of supporting terrorism, an accusation that the Qatari government denies.

The regional countries also blocked their transit routes to Qatar and ordered most of Qatari nationals to leave. The measures have also made family visits difficult. Qatari airways have also been banned from using the airspace of the Saudi-led bloc of countries.

Wahhabism is the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia, freely preached by government-backed clerics there, and inspiring terrorists worldwide. Daesh and other Takfiri terror groups use the ideology to declare people of other faiths as “infidels” and then kill them.

Over the past years, Saudi Arabia, backed by its regional and Western allies, has been providing generous ideological and financial support to the extremist terrorist groups operating in the region, particularly on the Syrian soil to topple the legitimate government in Damascus, an ally of Iran.