Egyptian Muslim Brothers ready for dialogue US Congress, citizens

The Muslim Brothers groups in Egypt, which is the major opposition force in the new parliament announced that it is ready to make direct contacts with the US congress.

The deputy chairman of the general Murshid ( guide) for the Group Muhammad Habib said that the group supports dialogue between members of the congress and the Egyptian parliament. But he stressed the group's rejection to direct contacts with the Bush administration, noting that this should be made via the Egyptian foreign ministry. Habib said that so far, no Americans contacted the group which occupies 88 seats, one fifth of the seats of the parliament.

He also indicated the need of getting acquainted with the basic issues the Americans want to discuss.

He added that the stances of the US President George W. Bush administration towards the policies of the Egyptian government is changing and unsatisfactorily. He urged Washington to take a principled position towards Cairo on the ground of which it deals with. This came following a meeting in which the group chose the parliamentarian from Almenia city, Muhammad Saad al-Katatni, as a leader for its parliamentary bloc. This came in reaction to the statement made by the spokesman for the US State Department several days ago over the possibility of having dialogue with Muslim Brothers parliamentarians, but in their capacity as independent parliamentarians rather than being a political party. The US spokesman stressed Washington will honor the legal embargo imposed by the Egyptian government against the group since the mid of the 1950s.