Iran calls Egypt military overthrow of Morsi ‘improper’

Supporters should not give up on reinstating former president, according to an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman

7 July 2013, 1:37 pm Edit

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. (photo credit:AP/Egyptian)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran, in its first official reaction to the toppling of Egypt’s democratically elected president by the military, called the move “improper.”

A Sunday report by official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi also saying that supporters of Mohammed Morsi should not give up in their quest to reinstate him. He also said the presidency should not be decided by “the streets.”

“Islamists and revolutionaries should not be frustrated,” said Araghchi. “Arab Spring can be followed by warm summer and cold winter,” too.

Araghchi did not call the move a “coup.”

Morsi ended more than three decades of diplomatic estrangement with Iran that dated back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.