US official visits senior Egypt Islamist in jail

CAIRO — A top U.S. diplomat held talks with a jailed senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood on Monday as part of mediation efforts to end the standoff between Egypt’s military-backed government and protesters supporting ousted President Mohammed Morsi, Egyptian officials said.

The talks between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Khairat el-Shater, the powerful deputy head of the Brotherhood, took place in the prison were the Islamist figure is being held, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Burns was accompanied by the foreign ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as well as an EU envoy. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Patricia Kabra declined to comment, but a spokesman for interim Egyptian President Adly Mansour confirmed the meeting. He said the four were also due to meet later Monday with another detained Brotherhood leader, Saad el-Katatni.

El-Shater was among a host of prominent Islamists arrested by authorities after the army ousted Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood member, on July 3. He has been charged with complicity in the killing of anti-Morsi protesters during the four days of protests that led up to the military coup.

The government officials did not say why Burns and the other diplomats visited el-Shater, who was widely believed along with the Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Mohammed Badie to be the source of real power during Morsi’s one year in power.

But Burns and the three other diplomats are in Egypt as part of international efforts to end a standoff between Morsi’s supporters and the military-backed interim government. Also Monday, senior U.S. senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham arrived in Cairo at President Barack Obama’s request to press for a quick return to civilian rule.

More than a month after Morsi’s ouster, thousands of the Islamist leader’s supporters remain camped out in two key squares in Cairo demanding his reinstatement. Egypt’s military-backed interim leadership has issued a string of warnings for them to disperse or security forces will move in, setting the stage for a potential violent showdown.

Already, some 250 people have been killed in violence since Morsi’s ouster, including at least 130 in two major clashes between security forces and supporters of the deposed president on July 8 and again on July 26 and early the next day.

Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, has been held at an undisclosed location since his removal from office. Last week, he was visited by the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and a group of African statesmen. Ashton said he was well and had access to TV and newspapers.

Morsi faces accusations of conspiring with the militant Palestinian Hamas group to escape prison in 2011.

El-Shater, Badie and four others, meanwhile, are to go on trial on Aug. 25 on charges related to the killing of eight protesters outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters during the mass protests leading up to the coup. Badie remains in hiding.

In a brief statement, the Brotherhood said Morsi remained the legitimately elected president who should be spoken to and not anyone else. It did not, however, condemn the Burns visit.

The visit came after Egypt’s highest security body, which is led by the interim president and includes top Cabinet ministers, announced that the time frame for any negotiated resolution to the current standoff should be “defined and limited.”

It also called on the pro-Morsi protesters to abandon their sit-ins and join the political road map announced the day of the coup.

With the Islamist-backed constitution adopted last year suspended and the legislature dominated by Morsi’s supporters dissolved, the road map provides for a new or an amended constitution to be put to a national referendum later this year and presidential and parliamentary elections early in 2014.

Mansour’s spokesman, Ahmed el-Muslemani, said not a “single step” of the road map would be changed and ruled out a referendum on the transition plan. His comments appeared designed to debunk speculation that the flurry of diplomatic visits is likely to persuade Egypt’s interim government to offer substantive concessions to Morsi’s supporters in return for an end to the sit-in protests.

Burns had extended his visit to Cairo by two days so he could have further talks with Egyptian leaders on Sunday and Monday. He met Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led the July 3 coup, and the prime minister on Sunday. Kabra, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, would not say whether Burns intended to further extend his stay.

The State Department said that during the trip, Burns was discussing the importance of avoiding violence and fostering an inclusive process “that helps Egypt’s ongoing transition succeed” — another clear sign Washington has moved on from Morsi’s presidency.

Burns also met for a second time this weekend with an anti-coup delegation that included two Muslim Brotherhood figures. He requested the meetings and urged them to avoid violence, according to Nevine Malak, who attended both meetings with Burns as part of the anti-coup delegation.