Is Brotherhood’s appeal for reconciliation with Cairo genuine?
It seems the Egyptian state will not respond to the recent Muslim Brotherhood calls for reconciliation, despite pressure by the US administration to fix its human rights record.
The Muslim Brotherhood is calling for dialogue with the Egyptian presidency without preconditions.
In a letter dated Sept. 14, prominent Brotherhood leader and the group’s former commissioner for international relations Youssef Nada said the “door is open for dialogue” with the Egyptian presidency. “We learned in politics that setting preconditions foils dialogue,” he added.
Nada’s letter came in response to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s live speech on Sept. 11 during the launching of the National Strategy for Human Rights, the first of its kind, which aims to develop Egypt’s human rights record. “Over the past 90 to 100 years, Egyptian society has been imbued with a specific thought,” Sisi said, in reference to the ideology of the Brotherhood that was founded in 1928.
“I am not in disagreement with them (the Brotherhood), but on the condition that they respect my path and do not intersect with me or target me … I will accept [the Brotherhood’s] thought, but it will not impose it on me, and it will not [use it to] pressure me — not only on me as a person, but also on Egypt and society,” he added.
