Sheikh Abu Ismail denies US support of Muslim Brotherhood

Disqualified presidential candidate Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail denied on Monday that the US has backed the Muslim Brtherhood to assume power, saying the Muslim Brotherhood deals with the US within the framework of international relations based on mutual interests. The Muslim Brotherhood did not change its previous stance towards the US but it came under heavy pressure from inside and outside for the handover of power and President Mohamed Morsi had to send assurances abroad to get his post, he said. The US tried hard so that Islamists would not rise to power but when they were elected, it was forced to deal with them, he said. As for the current crisis over the prosecutor general's post, he said the problem is not with the prosecutor general but with the Mubarak-era Higher Judicial Council, renewing support for enacting laws that would bring the judiciary, Al-Azhar and police to the Justice Ministry. As for Salafists' rejection of return of Egyptian-Iranian relations, he said the Egyptians will not turn into Shiites but he is afraid that simple people would be affected by Shiite rituals on the long run. But at the same time he denounced attack on the house of the Iranian charge d'affaires in Cairo, saying such attacks are unacceptable. Egyptian Islamist protesters threw stones at the house of Iran's envoy in Cairo on Friday and tried to scale the villa's walls but were blocked by police.