Iran Criticizes Sudan for Closing Cultural Centers

Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran criticized Sudan Tuesday for shutting down its cultural centers in the country over alleged Shiite proselytism, saying they had been operating correctly.

On September 2, a Sudanese official said the centers had been ordered closed in response to "increased activity... in spreading Shiite Islam," the majority faith in Iran but a fringe one in overwhelmingly Sunni Sudan.

Tehran's main cultural center in the Sudanese capital was padlocked on Sunday, an AFP correspondent reported.

Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said the center was operating within the law, and blamed the decision to shut it down on "suspect political groups," which she did not name.

Quoted by the ISNA news agency, she said the center’s "activities respected bilateral accords and Sudanese law".

The closure order was a "provocation by certain suspect political groups in Sudan and extremist groups in the region at a time when Sudan is suffering economic and political difficulties.

"We are certain that the Sudanese government would not allow groups that do not value the welfare of Iran and Sudan to tarnish relations between the two countries," she added.

A Sudanese analyst told AFP Sunday that the move by Khartoum might be in response to pressure from Saudi Arabia, which further isolated the indebted and sanctions-hit Sudanese economy earlier this year by denying access to major Saudi banks.

Iranian warships have periodically made stops in Port Sudan, across the Red Sea from Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia.

The regime of President Omar al-Bashir relies on a base of support that is essentially the same as the Muslim Brotherhood, which Saudi Arabia has declared a "terrorist" organization.

The group is also banned in many Gulf Arab countries.

Newspaper columnist Abdalla Rizig Abu Simazeh said Sudan will expect the Gulf Arab countries to reward its action against the Iranians.

But closing the cultural centers will not have much effect on broader Sudanese-Iranian ties and so "will probably minimize its impact in restoring Sudan's relations with the Arab Gulf countries and Egypt", Simazeh wrote in Sunday's The Citizen.