The reasons for a meeting between former Freedom and Justice Party members and U.S. State Department officials are “not understandable,” said Foreign Minister Sameh Shokry in Addis Ababa Saturday.U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said Thursday in the daily briefing that a delegation of “former FJP members” organized by Georgetown University, adding it was “ routine at the State Department as they meet political party leaders from across the world,” and that the group did not discuss the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi.
Shokry told Egyptian media Saturday that any kind of communication with group affiliated in “terrorist attacks is not understandable, as they are not political party, and according o the Egyptian law that should be treated as a terrorist group.”
Shokry said that terrorism does not only include ISIS or Boko Haram, but also all “groups that aim to destroy and kill.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, as well as its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, were dissolved in late 2013 by the Egyptian government; the ruling criminalized any association or membership with the group, and also authorized the government to seize its assets.
