Washington - US officials will not meet with visiting members of a delegation from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday.
Egypt summoned the US ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
“There was never any meeting planned,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a news briefing. “We haven't reversed a decision. We've met with them in the past, and our policy remains the same.”
The tensions reflect a clash between US diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.
Reuters