U.S. reaches out to Egypt’s Brotherhood

The United States is reaching out to the Muslim Brotherhood as the group gains political momentum in the parliamentary elections. “It’s clear that they (the Brotherhood) are now the only game in town,” and U.S. officials must talk to them, Marina Ottaway, who heads the Middle East program in Washington for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told AFP. Banned under deposed President Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood has emerged as a major political winner from the uprising that toppled him in the form of the well-organized Freedom and Justice Party. During the Mubarak era, Ottoway said that the U.S. administration had essentially “bought” the former president’s “line” that the Brotherhood and its links to Islamist militants were a threat to Egypt’s and the region’s stability, even though it had renounced violence decades ago. “The U.S. essentially backed Mubarak in its repression of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Ottaway said. U.S. officials had also turned down invitations by her think-tank to attend post-2005 meetings with Arab Islamist groups, including Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. “For the U.S. now to reach out to the Muslim Brotherhood is a big step, it’s a step that’s long overdue, but it’s a step that the United States has resisted,” she added. “It’s a huge change and they’re doing it out of necessity.” The Muslim Brotherhood said on Saturday it had won at least 41 percent of the seats in Egypt’s lower house of parliament, with Islamists of various stripes occupying almost two thirds of the assembly so far. The Brotherhood has promised that Egyptians of all persuasions will have their say and, while the strong Islamist performance has alarmed some Egyptians and Western governments that backed Mubarak, it is far from clear whether rival Islamists will cooperate in the new legislature. The Brotherhood’s Democratic Alliance list has won 41 percent of the seats so far, while another list led by the hardline Islamist Nour Party came second with 20 percent of the seats. The Nour Party seeks strict application of Islamic law and the more moderate Brotherhood may seek an alliance with liberal groups to allay concerns about the prospect of an Islamist-led Egypt. Sixty-two percent of potential voters cast their ballots in the third round of the election, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Egypt’s election commission said. But with increasing political Islamist influence throughout the country, foreign policy concerns still linger, particularly in relation to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. “On that score, the Brotherhood has kind of given reassuring signals but at this point they’re fairly general,” Analyst Nathan Brown, a George Washington University professor, told AFP, adding: “The Brotherhood, as an organization, is close to Hamas (in Gaza) and hostile to Israel.” Meanwhile, Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor, said the Brotherhood does not want to “rock the boat on foreign policy” or make certain drastic domestic changes as it seeks repairs for Egypt’s badly damaged economy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before the polls that the United States had pursued “limited contacts” with the Brotherhood as Washington was “re-engaging in” a six-year-old policy in light of Egypt’s political changes. For one, Telhami said, it will want Egypt to continue receiving U.S. and other foreign aid. It is also unlikely, at least in the short term, to ban alcohol or bikinis as it tries to revive tourism, an economic mainstay, he said. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said before the polls that the United States had pursued “limited contacts” with the Brotherhood as Washington was “re-engaging in” a six-year-old policy in light of Egypt’s political changes. In discussing contacts with the Brotherhood, Clinton’s spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last week that Washington had “some good reassurances from different interlocutors” on respect for human rights and Egypt’s international obligations, an allusion to the peace treaty. But she added: “We will continue to seek those kinds of reassurances going forward.”