Ahmed al-Moslemany, presidential media adviser, confirmed that there are ongoing contacts with all political forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to achieve “national reconciliation,” stressing that ousted President Mohamed Morsi is in seclusion and is being treated properly.
In his comments made at a press conference Tuesday, Moslemany said that there is no future for terrorism in Egypt, welcoming communication with the Muslim Brotherhood at the same time, saying, “We open our doors to everyone, including the Muslim Brotherhood.”
He explained that the presidency is offering a reconciliation process that aims to gather all actors together, adding, “We are optimistic, as we seek to a have constitution where everyone represented.”
However, the Muslim Brotherhood rejected the presidency’s invitation to participate in national dialogue.
As Mohammed al-Beltagy, leading figure of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, put it on Tuesday, talking about national reconciliation between the different parties and movements in Egypt consists merely of lies.
“We will not see national reconciliation,” he added, “except on the basis of stopping the military coup.”
Soleiman Gouda, political writer and analyst, said the Muslim Brotherhood has failed everyone in refusing to respond to calls of national reconciliation.
“Almost everyone has been urging the group to shed off their practices that stand against the will of the people and to take part in the national reconciliation efforts,” Gouda said.
Many people are against such calls and are rather pushing for the exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood from any reconciliation attempts, condemning them as a violent group that incites aggression and bloodshed.
Gouda insists that the people toppled the Muslim Brotherhood from power, not from the whole political scene.
“The Muslim Brotherhood must see that there is no intention to exclude or eliminate them or reject them in the future or during the transitional period. The exclusion is not from us, it is they who are refusing to be included in any national dialogue.”
The stance of the Muslim Brotherhood is in part related to developments such as the prosecutor general’s ordering to freeze the assets of twenty-one of their leaders on Sunday, including the Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, his deputy, Khairat al-Shater, and the deputy head of the Freedom and Justice Party, Essam al-Erian, among others.
Gehad al-Haddad, spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood said to the media that the group and its party will not enter into dialogue before Morsi is reinstated as president, because, he said, the current authority has usurped the legitimate authority of the president-elect of the country.
[This article originally appeared on Mada Masr.]