US, Iran both supporting Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

The recent removal of Morsi from power in Egypt has revealed a bizarre situation in which two opponents, the US and Iran, have joined in their respective shows of support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

By TAWFIK HAMID
Morsi supports hold posters in Cairo 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Morsi supports hold posters in Cairo 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
We can understand clearly that both the Iranian regime and the US have several contradictory interests.
The Iranian regime wants to achieve nuclear capability, erase Israel from the map, and support terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Additionally, the Iranian regime supports Shia efforts to create instability for the oil-rich American allies in the Gulf. The interests of the US are the opposite.
Such a contradiction in the foreign policies of the two countries was elucidated in Syria, where Iran has supported President Bashar Assad's Shia regime while the US has supported his Sunni opponents, which includes radical Islamists (Mujahediin).
The recent removal of Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power in Egypt has revealed a bizarre situation in which the two opponents, the US and Iran, have joined in their respective shows of support for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Iran was one of the first countries to show support for president Morsi and to date, US President Barack Obama has not expressed clear support for the June 30 Revolution against the Muslim Brotherhood. It raises eyebrows to see how the foreign policies of both the US and Iran share this common factor: to support the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi, directly in the case of Iran and indirectly  in the US' refusal to show clear support for the Revolution that removed him from power. 
The Iranian support for Morsi illustrates how both regimes share common interests such as creating a pan-Islamic state that applies Sharia Laws, and opposing western influence in the area. Additionally, these regimes share a strong desire to destroy the state of Israel as expressed by the Iranian former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has advocated erasing Israel from the map, and by the former President Morsi, who called Jews descendants of apes and pigs and urged Muslims to "nurse their children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews." 
Let us imagine for a moment that the US had to intervene militarily to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and that Morsi was in power at that time: is it expected that Morsi would help the US use the Suez canal to hit the anti-Semitic Iranian regime? Or would he stand beside his Muslim brothers in Iran irrespective of their sectarian difference as they already stood beside him. It is unrealistic to think that the Sunni-Shia divide would have a strong influence in such major issues.
Iran's recent support of Morsi, despite their opposing positions in Syria and their theological differences, just confirms this point. Their common desires to create a dominating pan-Islamic state to rule the world with Sharia and their ambition to destroy Israel, is a far more powerful uniting factor than their transient divisions and conflicts. The Iranian support for Morsi and their opposition to his removal from power is indicative of a stronger relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran than many would expect. This strong relationship can manifest at crucial times and can cause significant damage to our interests.
When the US finds itself supporting, either directly or indirectly, the very same Islamic group that is also supported by Iran, it needs to question how this could happen and its possible implications in the future.
The writer is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of a terrorist Islamic organization JI with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri, who later became the second in command of al-Qaida. He is currently a senior fellow and chairman of the study of Islamic radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.