Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi appears to have learned from his American political counterparts by reneging on his May 2014 campaign promise never to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. According to a report from The Tower news portal:
The Egyptian government is trying to rehabilitate the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was deposed from power in July 2013. However, these attempts so far have been met with a stubborn refusal from the Brotherhood, the Arab21 news site reported (Arabic link).
Sources in the Muslim Brotherhood said that there were several rounds of talks between the leaders of the movement and officials from the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, sometimes directly and sometimes with mediation.
The conversations focused on the regime’s desire to get the conservative Islamic movement to recognize the legitimacy of the Egyptian regime. In return, the regime promised it will integrate the Muslim Brotherhood back into political life and release arrested members, the news site reported.
The Egyptian government purposefully did not arrest the more moderate leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, in order to sustain contacts with them and reach a political solution to the crisis. Those leaders include Muhammad Ali Bashr, Amr Daraj, and Yasser Ali, the last of whom was the spokesperson of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.
Read the rest here.
However, as the GMBDW reported in May 2014, El-Sisi had promised during his campaign that “the Brotherhood would cease to exist during his presidency.” As Saudi media also reported at the time:
May 6, 2014 Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Egypt’s former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi kicked off his presidential campaign on Monday with his first ever TV interview, during which he ruled out reconciliation with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. He stressed that “there will be nothing called the Muslim Brotherhood” if he is elected president, adding that the Egyptian people reject reconciliation with the outlawed group.
Given this seeming flip-flop on such an important issue, the GMBDW judges President El-Sisi more than ready for an American political campaign.