US on Muslim Brothers' review of peace treaty with Israel

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was asked yesterday: "In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is -- well, had quite a success during the elections and now they are following the path of Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad and they want .. to reconsider the peace treaty with Israel and it should be the object of a referendum. Do you have any comment on that, any doubt?"

McCormack replied "first of all, there are a number of independent candidates that won seats in the past Egyptian parliament -- the recent parliamentary election in Egypt. In terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, that was a proud moment for the Egyptian people. It was a proud moment in the long history of Egypt. And there was worldwide and near universal acclaim for the bold step that President Sadat took in signing that peace agreement.

We encourage the building up of the relationship between Egypt and Israel. They have diplomatic relations. They do have a political dialogue. We encourage the expansion of that political dialogue. That's the direction we think the relationship should head."

Asked "don't you think that in encouraging the spread of democracy in the Middle East there is danger of -- the risk of some movement appearing and not following this -- the path you would like them to follow?"

McCormack said "No. We think that ultimately, if given the choice, that people throughout the region, no matter what country they live in, given the choice between a life of uncertainty, threat of violence, limited prospects for greater prosperity, and the alternative of greater freedoms, greater freedom of expression, the prospect of realizing a better way of life not only for themselves but for their children, and doing so in an atmosphere of stability and security, we think people are going to choose the latter.

And certainly there will be those who call for greater isolation, walking back the advances that have been made in the region in terms of bringing greater understanding, greater peace, greater stability to that region. We do believe that given the choice, that people will choose, vote for, advocate for greater stability, greater peace, greater prosperity and greater freedom."