Excerpts: UAE concern with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood January 06, 2013

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 6 Jan.’13:”(Egypt has)No interest in exporting what
happened in Egypt”

“Egyptian foreign minister allays UAE concern”

SUBJECT: UAE concern with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

QUOTE:”Egyptian F.M allays UAE concerns”

FULL TEXT:RIYADH – Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, at a news
conference in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud Al-Faisal,
Saturday[5 Jan.] said that Egypt does not interfere in the affairs of other
countries.

“This is a firm position by Egypt and what happens in Egypt concerns only
the Egyptian people and we have no interest in transferring what happened in
Egypt to another country,” Amr said. “Egypt has no interest in exporting any
of that.”

Amr’s comments came as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rejected a request by
Egypt to free 11 of its citizens, local newspapers reported Saturday.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood last week said some of the detainees were its
members and demanded they be freed, saying they had been wrongfully
arrested.

Relations between Egypt and the UAE soured after veteran Egyptian president
Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011. The UAE has voiced distrust of the Muslim
Brotherhood that helped propel Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to power
last year.

Egypt sent a presidential aide and its intelligence chief, General Mohamed
Shehata, to the UAE for talks following the arrests.

“They (UAE officials) explained that a suspect cannot be released before the
case goes to court,” the English-language Gulf News reported, adding the
Egyptian delegation was told the UAE had a robust legal system. The
Arabic-language Al-Khaleej newspaper said the 11 suspects were under
investigation by state security prosecutors over “serious charges.”

Citing an unnamed source, Al-Khaleej last week said there were close ties
between Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and leaders of the Islamists in
detention.

It said the detained Egyptians had given “a number of courses and lectures
... on elections and ways to change systems of government in Arab countries”.

The UAE arrested about 60 suspected Brotherhood sympathizers last year,
accusing them of plotting to undermine governments in the Gulf region.

The Brotherhood has sought to reassure Gulf states that it has no plan to
push for political change beyond Egypt’s borders. Mahmoud Ghozlan, a
Brotherhood spokesman in Cairo, rejected the charge that the 11 were seeking
to destabilize the UAE.

The son of one of those arrested said his father, Ali Sonbol, was a doctor
and not involved in political activities.

Last month, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan
summoned Egypt’s ambassador over claims carried by Egyptian media that the
UAE was behind a plot against Egypt’s leadership, saying they were
“fabricated.”– Agencies

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA