Final results confirm Islamists top Egypt vote

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. The USA seems fully willing to work with them

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is already starting to experience the weight of governmental responsibility. The fact that its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, received almost 45 percent of the votes in the recent parliamentary elections is certainly reason for it to celebrate; this reflects the massive change that Egypt's revolution wrought. As far as the Brotherhood is concerned, the change began last February, when government-sponsored newspapers stopped calling it the "forbidden party," and continued when the party's new building became a pilgrimage site for senior Western officials.

The Brotherhood's relationship with the United States has gradually strengthened: The secret contacts that took place even during the reign of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have now been replaced by open meetings with representatives of the U.S. administration. The most recent was this week's meeting between Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Mohamed Morsy, leader of the Freedom and Justice Party. According to Egyptian sources, the meeting was initiated by the U.S. State Department, which is aware that the Muslim Brotherhood will form Egypt's next government and therefore sees no reason to postpone working meetings.
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There's also a more practical reason why Iran will not be an ally of a Brotherhood-led Egyptian government: Saudi Arabia has promised Egypt $4 billion, and Riyadh will not give money to a government that signs a treaty with Iran.

The same is true of the United States, which will be asked to "recommend" that the International Monetary Fund grant the Egyptian government a $3 billion loan. Last week, the Brotherhood announced that in contrast to its previous position, it no longer objects to requesting a loan from the IMF, as long as all other options are exhausted first and the loan doesn't undermine Egypt's national interests. The other options to which the Brotherhood is referring include raising the price of gas sold to Israel and raising tax collection rates among Egypt's wealthiest citizens.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/neighbors-muslim-brotherhood-discovers-the-u-s-1.407723

Muslim Brotherhood meets U.S. envoy

U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson met in Cairo with Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohamed Badie and other senior leaders in the Islamic movement.
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Patterson, the Muslim Brotherhood statement stated, said Washington was taking a lessons-learned approach in the region as it emerges from the Arab Spring.
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(President Carter said)
"I was assured by U.S. State Department officials before leaving home that this victory of Islamists would be accepted and that meetings with them had already begun," he said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2012/01/19/Muslim-Brotherhood-meets-US-envoy/UPI-99661326995767/#ixzz1k7pFszQg