(CAIRO, EGY) - The United States reached out to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday in a move welcomed by the once-banned Islamist group, reflecting the new political landscape in post-revolution Egypt.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Budapest that Washington has been in "limited contacts" with the Muslim Brotherhood.
"The Obama administration is continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that have existed on and off for about five or six years," she told journalists in Budapest.
"We believe that given the change of the political landscape in Egypt, it is in the interest of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to non-violence," she said.
"This is not a new policy but it is one that we're re-engaging in."
The Brotherhood welcomed the move, telling AFP it was open to contacts with the United States as long as its "values are respected," but said there had been "no direct contacts" in the past.
"We are willing to meet in a context of respect. If the US is truly willing to respect our values and support freedom as it says it does, then we have no problem," spokesman Mahmud Ghozlan said after Clinton's statement.
"There are no direct contacts between the US and the Muslim Brotherhood," Ghozlan said.
"Representatives of the United States have in the past met with groups of (Egyptian) parliamentarians, which included Muslim Brotherhood members.
"Those meetings were not exclusively attended by Muslim Brotherhood members but by a range of political forces and were chaired" by the speaker of parliament, he said.
Nationwide protests that erupted on January 25 in Egypt and brought an end to Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule opened the door to new political groups and brought the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood into the foreground.
It formed a party, the Freedom and Justice party, which became legal earlier this month.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has scheduled legislative elections in September. Parliament is to draft a new constitution and then presidential elections will also be set.
On Wednesday, senior US official William Burns had called for an "open and inclusive" process in Egypt, even as fresh clashes in Cairo signalled mounting frustration with the military rulers over the pace of reform.
Many have called for a postponement of the September elections in order to avoid a sweep by the well entrenched Muslim Brotherhood, which could benefit from the lack of preparation from other parties.
Some, including a large part of the country's Christian minority, fear that having the elections before the constitution would give the Islamist groups too much influence in drafting the charter.
The United States had insisted as recently as February that it was not in contact with the Islamist group, with Clinton warning against any one party or ideology hijacking the democratic transition in Egypt.
On Thursday, she insisted that: "In any of those contacts, prior or future, we will continue to emphasise the importance and support for democratic principles."
The West has kept a watchful eye on the Brotherhood, fearing it might install an Islamic regime following Mubarak's ousting in February.
But the group has insisted its new party is "non-theocratic" and for all Egyptians.
"The US has issues with Islamists in general and with the Muslim Brotherhood in particular," Ghozlan said. "Any future meetings will depend on (the United States)."
