(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A senior Iranian cleric has criticized the Turkish government's decision to host a NATO radar system on its soil, saying that such a move “was not expected from Islamic Turkey.”
Tehran's interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said on Friday that Turkey's agreement to the NATO plan will disrupt the “security of the region,” and cause new problems for the regional nations, IRNA reported.
“Turkey wants both Muslims and non-Muslims to be satisfied with its actions; yet, Turkey's move to agree to the deployment of [NATO's] missile defense shield [on its soil] cannot be approved of,” Ayatollah Jannati said.
He, however, praised Ankara's recent decision to cut all its military ties with Israel and said “All Muslim countries must take similar measures, and those states that have not yet done so should repent, otherwise, one day they will face the situation of Egypt during the Mubarak era.”
On September 2, the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced Ankara's plans to host NATO's missile-detecting system in the country while declaring that it would suspend all military ties with Israel and expel the Israeli envoy from the country over Tel Aviv's refusal to apologize for last year's deadly attack on a Gaza-bound Turkish-flagged flotilla.
The senior Iranian cleric went on to condemn the Al Khalifa regime for its brutal suppression of peaceful Bahraini protesters, describing the recent killing of a 14-year-old teenager by Manama's security forces as a bitter incident.
Saudi-backed Bahraini forces shot the 14-year-old Ali Jawad Ahmed al-Sheikh directly in the face and at close range during protests held after the Eid al-Fitr Prayers, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, in the southern city of Sitra.
He pointed to Manama's accusations against Bahraini cleric Sheikh Issa Qasim, saying such behavior had provoked a wave of protests by clerics in Iraq, Iran and other Muslim countries.
“What crime has an old man, who defends the legal and religious rights of the people of Bahrain, committed?”
Ayatollah Jannati touched upon the victory of Libyan revolutionaries over the Gaddafi regime and urged them not to allow enemies to take advantage of the current developments in the country and seize control of its affairs.
“Just as the Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] said the correct [form] of democracy must be presented to them (Libyans), a democracy that is based on Islam and is neither [dependant on the] East nor the West."
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9 September 2011 - 19:30
News ID: 264556
A senior Iranian cleric has criticized the Turkish government's decision to host a NATO radar system on its soil, saying that such a move “was not expected from Islamic Turkey.”
