Egypt presidency preparing for reconciliation talks, Brotherhood remains defiant
Ahram Online, Tuesday 16 Jul 2013
Advisor to Egypt's interim leader says date of reconciliation talks to be announced soon; Muslim Brotherhood says no negotiations until Mohamed Morsi returned to power


The Egyptian presidency is preparing for national reconciliation talks, the date of which will be announced soon, an advisor to interim leader Adly Mansour has said.

"National reconciliation will require sincere intentions and clear goals [from all parties], or else reconciliation efforts will be useless," Ahmed El-Meslemani asserted in a press statement on Monday evening.

The popularly backed military overthrow of Mohamed Morsi – who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood – and its roadmap for a transitional period were supported by liberal and leftist groups as well as the ultraconservative Salafist Nour party, whose criticism of Morsi had been increasing over recent months.

The roadmap included appointing High Constitutional Court head Adly Mansour as interim president for a transitional period of at least six months, during which the 2012 constitution would be amended, followed by parliamentary and presidential elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies have strongly rejected the "blatant military coup d'état against the president's democratic legitimacy." Thousands of Morsi supporters remain at a sit-in in Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square demanding his reinstatement.

"What [national] reconciliation are they speaking about? They are reconciling with the Mubarak regime symbols, not the Egyptian people," Mohamed El-Beltagy, deputy head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said in a speech at Rabaa Al-Adawiya on Monday night.

"There is no room for negotiation until our legitimate president Morsi is reinstated," he asserted.

A number of deadly clashes have taken place since Morsi's removal on 3 July between his supporters and state forces, leaving at least 51 dead.

Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first democratically elected president in June 2012 after narrowly beating Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in a runoff.

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