Egypt’s Interior Ministry warned supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday for a second time to abandon their protest camps as a senior U.S. diplomat met with officials on both sides of the country’s political divide.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns extended his visit to Cairo by one day so he could meet military leader Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and the country’s prime minister today, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said. A member of the pro-Morsi delegation that met Saturday with Burns said the four delegates also would meet again with the U.S. diplomat today for more talks.
At the core of talks is the political future of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies following the July 3 coup that ousted Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president. The military coup, which followed several days of mass protests by millions of Egyptians demanding his ouster, also led to the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament and the suspension of an Islamist-drafted constitution.
The Brotherhood says it is looking for concessions before beginning talks with their rivals. Such measures could include releasing detained Brotherhood leaders, unfreezing the group’s assets, lifting a ban on its television stations and reigning in the use of force against its protesters.
The trip by Burns, his second to Cairo since the coup, comes amid heightened fears of more bloodshed after more than 80 Morsi supporters were killed in clashes with police a week ago. More than 280 people have been killed nationwide in political violence since Morsi’s removal.
Burns and others have signaled that the West is foremost seeking stability in the Arab world’s most populous nation, and that it has moved on from Morsi’s presidency. Washington and others have called, though, for his Brotherhood group’s participation in politics as a way to achieve national reconciliation.
America’s No. 2 diplomat held talks Saturday with interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour and Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, as did the European Union’s special envoy, Bernardino Leon. Ahead of his visit, the State Department said Burns would discuss “the importance of avoiding violence and helping to facilitate a peaceful and inclusive political process.”
Nevine Malak, who attended a meeting with Burns as part of a delegation representing those against the coup, said the session was mainly for “listening.” She said the group, which includes two members of the Brotherhood’s political wing, would meet Burns again today.
“Any solution or any initiative must include the return of the (suspended) constitution,” she told The Associated Press. “We don’t ignore the fact that there were masses that took to the streets, but we don’t ignore either that what happened was a coup against legitimacy.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who also met Burns, said Egyptian officials have made clear to their Western counterparts “there is no moving back.” Fahmy also said the transitional road map adopted by the country’s military-backed interim leaders is open to the Brotherhood for participation.
“There have been contacts between different figures, be they in government directly or indirectly, and those among the Brotherhood’s leaders,” Fahmy told journalists. He declined to describe those discussions as “negotiations.”
Fahmy, who served as Cairo’s ambassador to Washington under autocrat Hosni Mubarak for nearly a decade, also said that key to the U.S. is “their interests in the region.”
“I think they do that by assessing who’s in power, who’s not in power … and how to deal with that situation given what their interests are,” he said.
About the Author
