Iranian Quds Force and Muslim Brotherhood officials plotted to form anti-Saudi alliance

Representatives of Iran’s Quds Force and Muslim Brotherhood considered forming an anti-Saudi alliance, documents by The Intercept on Monday showed.

Over 700 pages seen by The New York Times and online publication The Intercept reported that the documents from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) showed Iran’s wielding of influence in the region, especially in Iraq.

Officials from both sides held an undisclosed summit at a Turkish hotel in April 2014 to seek common ground.

Although both sides shared major differences, during the meeting they decided that there “should be a focus on joint grounds for cooperation.”

They both shared “a hatred for Saudi Arabia, a common enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran,” the document said.

Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood suggested the two entities should join forces against the Saudis. The place to do that was in Yemen, where a war between the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government was about to escalate.

“In Yemen, with the influence of Iran on Houthis and the influence of the Brotherhood on the armed tribal Sunni factions, there should be a joint effort to decrease the conflict between Houthis and Sunni tribes to be able to use their strength against Saudi Arabia,” the Brotherhood delegation argued.

The documents showed that neither side knew there was a spy in the summit.

Iran’s MOIS, a rival of the Revolutionary Guards within the Iranian national security apparatus, had an agent who reported on the developments that occurred in that meeting.

The MOIS agent not only attended but “acted as coordinator of this meeting,” according to the document.

Iran’s intelligence ministry “envied the Quds’ power and tried to keep track of their activities around the world” the leaked cables said.

Turkey at the time had good relations with both sides, which meant that it was safe to conduct the summit there. But the government denied Quds chief Major General Qassem Soleimani, according to the document.

Other senior Quds officials attended the meeting that was led by one of General Soleimani’s deputies, identified in the documents as Abu Hussain.

The delegation of the Muslim Brotherhood was led by three prominent members: Ibrahim Munir Mustafa, Mahmoud El Abiary, and Youssef Moustafa Nada.

Mr Nada denied any knowledge of the 2014 meeting in Turkey in an interview with The Intercept.

After 9/11, the George W Bush administration and the United Nations suspected that Mr Nada had helped finance Al Qaeda, his bank accounts were frozen and his movement restricted.

UN sanctions against him were lifted in 2009 because no proof of his alleged ties to terrorism could be found.

Source: The National