CAIRO, April 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The US State Department has drawn up a memo calling for direct and permanent political dialogue with the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a leading Arabic newspaper reported on Sunday, April 3.

The US administration sees the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the most powerful opposition movements in Egypt, unnamed Western diplomatic sources in the Egyptian capital told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The memo recommends inviting the group’s representatives to the United States for better communication and common grounds on Egypt’s reform policies and the pressing issues in the region, they added.

The State Department believes that Washington can contain the group and its ilk through dialogue.

The memo, according to the Western diplomatic sources, maintains that it is about time that the administration looked differently at religious groups and avoided any further clash with them, because this would only fan hatred and incite more attacks against US interests.

They added that the State Department has asked the US Embassy in Cairo to reach out to the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders as a preliminary step for an organized dialogue.

The memo recommends that after reaching common understandings with the Muslim Brotherhood, Washington should pressure the Egyptian government to let the group members speak out their minds freely and play a role on the country’s political landscape, according to the sources.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been banned since 1954, has 16 deputies in Egypt ’s 454-member parliament, making it the main opposition force in Egypt.

The memo maintains that it would be a “historical mistake” to marginalize the Muslim Brotherhood or treat the group as an enemy to the US, said the sources.

It recognizes that the group enjoys a soaring popularity in Egypt which necessitates regular meetings with its leaders.

The State Department cautions against listening to the warnings of the Egyptian government which have not proved “serious” in all cases.

The memo asserts that the Egyptian government has been describing the Muslim Brotherhood as a “bugaboo” to justify rigging election or scaling down reforms.

“They (government) fear that free and fair election will bring about opposition figures and undermine the privileges they have been enjoying for years,” the Western diplomatic sources told the London-based daily.

Egyptian Minister of Justice Mahmoud Abu El-Leil said last week that the Egyptian judiciary would supervise the multi-candidate presidential election to be held in September.

President Hosni Mubarak has not indicated whether he would run for a fifth term in office.

But a senior official from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) told the official MENA news agency that Mubarak would announce his decision after the result of a referendum in May on a proposed amendment to the constitution allowing multi-candidate presidential election.

Mohammad Habib, the first deputy of the Muslim Brotherhood Guide-General, signaled conditional welcome to a dialogue with Washington.

“It should take place under the supervision of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry,” he told the mass-circulation newspaper.

Habib denied that the group had been locked in talks with the US, stressing that the Muslim Brotherhood rejected any reform recipe from abroad.

“Egypt’s reform agenda should come from within,” he said emphatically.

The Muslim Brotherhood leader further denied knowledge of any contacts between officials from the US embassy in Cairo and the group’s leaders.

“Make no mistake about it: we don’t deal with the US embassy and any [foreign] contacts should be done via the Foreign Ministry,” Habib said.

He reaffirmed his group’s readiness for dialogue with all political parties in Egypt, including the NDP, for the welfare of Egyptian society.