EU envoy Ashton urges Egypt’s rulers to end stand-off with Muslim Brotherhood

Europe’s top diplomat pressed Egypt’s rulers yesterday to step back from a growing confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, two days after 80 of his supporters were gunned down in Cairo.

Raising the prospect of more bloodshed, the Muslim Brotherhood said it would march again yesterday evening on ministry offices.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, became the first overseas envoy to visit Egypt since Saturday’s carnage, the second mass killing of Morsi supporters by security forces since the army ousted him on July 3rd. The bloodshed has raised global anxiety the army may move to crush the Brotherhood, a movement which emerged from the shadows to win power in elections after Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

Ms Ashton, on her second trip to Egypt since Mr Morsi’s fall, met Gen Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the head of the army and the man behind the overthrow of Egypt’s first freely elected president. She also held talks with deputy interim president and prominent liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei and interim foreign minister Nabil Fahmy.

There were no immediate details on the talks. Earlier, Ms Ashton said she would press for a “fully inclusive transition process, taking in all political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood”.

Peaceful solution
In comments carried by the Mena state news agency, Mr ElBaradei said he had told Ms Ashton the new leadership was doing all in its power to "reach a peaceful way out of the current crisis, that preserves the blood of all Egyptians".

Ms Ashton was also meeting members of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing. “It’s very simple, we are not going anywhere,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad said before the meeting. “We are going to increase the protest and multiply the sit-ins.”

Ms Ashton’s leverage is limited. The United States is Egypt’s chief western backer and source of $1.3 billion in military aid, though the EU is the biggest civilian aid donor. The EU has attempted to mediate in the crisis as Egyptians have grown suspicious of US involvement. – (Reuters)