Al-Azhar Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb demanded the U.S. stop “supporting” some factions that “work against their own homelands,” according to a strongly worded statement from Al-Azhar Wednesday.
The statement followed the Grand Imam’s meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Cairo R. Stephen Beecroft at Al-Azhar’s headquarters.
Tayeb also expressed his rejections of U.S. meetings with “extremist groups.”
In February, some Muslim Brotherhood members met with State Department officials in Washington, D.C.
The Grand Imam also condemned U.S. “openness” to regional powers that aim to expand across the region, such as in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, at the expense of the peoples of these countries.
To the dismay of several Middle East countries, including Israel and most Gulf States, U.S. President Barack Obama has pursued negotiating an agreement with Iran with the goal of keeping the country away from nuclear power.
Further, Tayeb denounced the U.S.’s attempts to “impose” a government in Libya that includes groups rejected by Libyans, saying the U.S. did not support the Egyptian airstrike on Islamic State group locations in Libya following the murder of 20 Egyptians there.
Beecroft promised to convey Tayeb’s messages to the U.S. administration, according to Al-Azhar’s statement.
