Ghannouchi: Bouteflika rejected Egypt’s request to ban Muslim Brotherhood

Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Tunisian Ennahda political movement, has said that Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had rejected requests made by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, Masralarabia.com reported yesterday.

Speaking to the Algerian newspaper Al-Khabar, Ghannouchi said that Bouteflika replied to the Egyptian president’s request: “The [Muslim] Brotherhood served the country with us, fought terrorism with us and more than 500 [of its] leaders [were] killed during the wave of terror. How can we brand them as terrorists?”

Ghannouchi said that he asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, during a meeting with him, to mediate between the Egyptian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. He said that Saudi could accomplish this due to its “spiritual positon”. However, he ruled out that Saudi would do this in the light of the current circumstances.

Meanwhile, he stressed that “there is no politics in Egypt without the army,” calling for integrating the Islamists, which the Muslim Brotherhood form a main part of, with the Egyptian political process.

In another issue, Ghannouchi said an Algerian-Tunisian-Egyptian initiative would likely end the Libyan crisis, stressing that Egypt’s interest is to find a solution for the problems in its neighbour states. It was not immediately clear what the tripartite plan entailed.