Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the man who’s widely projected to become the next president of Egypt, said he doesn’t see how the Muslim Brotherhood could re-enter politics in the nation and that the group is pretty much finished.
“It’s not me who finished the Muslim Brotherhood — the Egyptian people have,” he said in a televised appearance on Tuesday reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Mr. el-Sissi, a retired military official and the former defense minister, has been leading Egypt for the past 10 months in a de facto status. He says the people of Egypt largely gave the mandate to oust former President Mohammed Morsi and crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood — and that atmosphere isn’t likely to change, the Los Angeles Times said.
Still, his view sets him at odds with the West in some respects. The United States and other Western governments have been calling on Egypt to restore a political culture of inclusiveness, even though the Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization by interim Cairo government officials.
Mr. el-Sissi has adopted a somewhat hard line in terms of putting his nation’s interests first, saying that those who don’t support some of Egypt’s recently enacted laws and crackdowns will be seen as wanting “to sabotage Egypt,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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