It’s no secret the Obama administration is ideologically favorable toward the Muslim Brotherhood. Conversely, it’s also an open secret that President Obama does not like Egypt’s secular leader Fattah el Sisi or the principles represented by Sisi’s framework of governance for all Egyptians.
However, the U.S. administration conducting secret meetings with a terrorist enemy of the Egyptian state, the Muslim Brotherhood, is going too far. El Sisi wants answers.
(Via Reuters) Egypt summoned the U.S. ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. officials did not intend to meet the group although they had met some Brotherhood figures that came to Washington in January.
The tensions reflect a clash between U.S. diplomats’ desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who, as army chief, toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.
The sources declined to say precisely when U.S. Ambassador Stephen Beecroft was call in by the Egyptian government, though one said it was in recent days. Egypt sought the meeting to make clear its unhappiness at U.S. dealings with the Brotherhood.
State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke declined to say whether Beecroft was summoned by the Egyptian authorities or whether U.S. officials would meet Brotherhood figures visiting Washington, telling reporters he was aware of media reports of such a visit but that “I don’t have any meetings to announce.”
He said it continued to be U.S. policy to engage with people from across the political spectrum in Egypt.
The United States has had ambivalent dealings with Sisi, prizing the stability has brought to Egypt while cautiously criticizing Egypt’s human rights record and the authorities’ crackdown on the Brotherhood. (read more)
Interesting to note how the administration official views the Muslim Brotherhood as just another entity in the political spectrum of Egypt.
