Cairo angered as US distinguishes between Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and violent militant groups

New US travel advice on Egypt draws Cairo's ire as it distinguishes between the Muslim Brotherhood and violent militant groups.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

21 July, 2017

Egypt is battling a militant Islamist insurgency in the Sinai region [AFP]

Egypt has expressed "discontent" at the United States' recent travel warning about the North African country, saying that the guidance makes a false distinction between "terror groups" and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Cairo, which is currently battling an Islamic State group-linked insurgency in the restive Sinai region, has also proscribed the Brotherhood as a "terror organisation".

This labelling has not been officially recognised by the US, UK and many other major Western states.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said on Thursday that the travel advice's wording was dissatisfactory.

Abu Zeid said it was "unacceptable" to distinguish between violent political groups and militants, since all groups that use violence are "terrorist organisations" - referring to the Brotherhood group.

Egypt's current government, headed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, deposed and jailed the country's first democratically elected president, Mohammad Morsi, in 2013 in a military coup.

The Brotherhood - of which Morsi was a member - has subsequently been violently suppressed and banned by law with countless activists jailed and around 1,000 supporters killed during the Rabaa Square Massacre in the days after the coup.

The new US travel advice issued on Wednesday warns Americans to consider the risk of travelling to the Middle Eastern country in light of recent attacks, including the killing of 23 soldiers in Sinai and a stabbing at a Red Sea resort that resulted in the deaths of two German tourists.

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