Muslim Brotherhood responds to Al-Sisi: No reconciliation without fair punishment

Amr Moussa, the former foreign minister who currently heads the advisory board of Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s presidential campaign, issued a press statement on Sunday saying that, “the door is open for all to participate in the political process.”

The statement continued: “If the Muslim Brotherhood wishes to do so, they have to publically recognise the constitution, end violence and acknowledge the new legitimacy.”

“If the Muslim Brotherhood thinks about taking advantage of the new constitutional status, they will realise that that the 2014 Constitution does not isolate anyone, and it is different from their constitution, through which they isolated and deprived hundreds of political figures who belonged to the former regime,” Moussa added.

Major General Sameh Seif Al-Yazal, a former official at the Egyptian Intelligence Directorate who still has strong ties to the regime, also stated that there “could be a reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, provided they admit that June 30 was a revolution, and that Al-Sisi is the president of Egypt.”

In response to this statement, Ahmed Abdul-Aziz, the media advisor to ousted President Mohamed Morsi, noted that: “June 30 was not a revolution, but a counter-revolution to the January 25 Revolution; and what happened on July 3 was a military coup against the constitutional legitimacy. Al-Sisi is only a thug who seized the presidency by force.”

“There will be no reconciliation with the coup’s leaders, be they militants or civilians,” he asserted.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders stressed that Morsi is still the legitimate president. In an exclusive statement, the London-based Freedom and Justice Party Secretary Mohammed Sudan told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “No reconciliation over blood. Reconciliation will take place only through justice for the thousands of martyrs who were killed by the coup’s forces.”

“The reconciliation file is in the hands of President Morsi, and he alone has the authority to make a decision in this respect. So if they want a solution, they should sit down with him,” he said, adding that: “The so-called presidential election proved that June 30 was not a revolution. Where were the 30 million people who were said to have filled the squares on June 30? Why did they not come to the polling stations during the election?”

Report by Ayman El-Masry for Al-Araby Al-Jadid