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Egypt: No reconciliation with Muslim Brotherhood

November 30, 2016 at 4:52 pm

Three Egyptian government officials have denied that there are efforts to reach a reconciliation deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, stressing that deals similar to those made between the group and former presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak are impossible, Al-Shorouk newspaper reported yesterday.

The officials, who include two ministers, denied the report published by the same newspaper on 22 November about procedures of a reconciliation under the auspices of Saudi Arabia.

The Egyptian newspaper reported one of the officials saying that reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood is “an impossibility”, stressing that “the government had never thought of this issue because the group is still practicing terrorism”.

It also reported another official on the margins of the technology conference saying: “No official in the world hates reconciliation, stability and tranquillity, but the natural question is: What reconciliation is it, how, with whom, what its price is and what are its conditions?”

A third official was reported to have said: “The Muslim Brotherhood has not taken a final decision yet. It still dreams about reaching authority via violence and terrorism. So that, it is not ready for a reconciliation.”

“We deny reports that the Brotherhood had agreed to engage in reconciliation with the coup regime in Egypt under regional sponsorship,” the Brotherhood said in the statement, stressing that it had never been asked by anyone to mediate between the group and the “military-backed regime”.