'Decision on Israeli peace treaty up to Egyptian people'

Muslim Brotherhood official says "decision on the treaty does not belong to the Brotherhood, it belongs to the entire Egyptian people."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Senior Muslim Brotherhood members 311 AP (photo credit: AP)
Senior Muslim Brotherhood members 311 AP
(photo credit: AP)
The Muslim Brotherhood on Friday said that any decision on the country's peace treaty with Israel was up to the Egyptian people and it would not impose its view on them, Rueters reported.
"The decision on the treaty does not belong to the Brotherhood, it belongs to the entire Egyptian people," said Essam al-Erian, a spokesman for the Islamist group, in an interview with Al Arabiya television.
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Erian did not set out the Brotherhood's position on the accords.
Earlier in the week, the Obama administration sent mixed messages on its position toward the Muslim Brotherhood and its assessments of the group’s goals.
Click for full Jpost coverage of Egypt
Click for full Jpost coverage of Egypt
“It is hard, at this point, to point to a specific agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood as a group,” US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Wednesday, when asked about its stance on Iran, weapons smuggling by Hamas and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
Pressed on the last point, Clapper finally said, “They are not in favor of the treaty.”
His comments comes after criticism he received last week for asserting that the organization is “largely secular.”
On Wednesday he said he had been misunderstood and that he was trying to say that the group tries to work within the framework of a secular government.