Brotherhood-American Spring

The United States is reaching out its hand to the Muslim Brotherhood within the region, after a long period of conservatism stretching from the end of the Soviet era. This is an attempt to adapt to the new political reality that the Arab Spring has imposed, along with the strong return of political Islam to the arena after the end of a stage marred by much tension and strain in the relationship between the Arab regimes and the Islamists. This tension was especially heated in the era of the new conservatives, who choked the throats of Islamists by way of these – Arab – regimes with the justification of combating terrorism!

With the rise of the Islamists, including both the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the United States has begun to feel worried about the position of the Islamists towards minorities, women, and the peace treaty with the Zionist enemy. In the first legislative elections after President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, the emerging Freedom and Justice Party announced that the Muslim Brotherhood organization won the election with about 40 percent of the electors’ votes in the first stage of the third and final phase. In a context which confirms the return of flirtation between the two sides, the United States and the Islamists, an entity called “Marina Ottaway,” which heads the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, announced that it is clear that the Muslim Brotherhood is now the lone power on the ground and that American officials must have a dialogue with them.

However, even before the beginning of elections, the United States realized that they had to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood, the most organized political movement in Egypt. And in a context that confirms the continuity between the parties, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced before the elections that the United States was undertaking limited communications with the Muslim Brotherhood in the framework of resuming a policy applied six years ago – in light of the political changes in Egypt.

Furthermore, it seems that the Muslim Brotherhood has issued sufficiently encouraging signs to strengthen the United States’ sense of ease towards them, thus justifying the communications, according to the indications of important American analysts. Moreover, the United States realizes perfectly well that the Muslim Brotherhood also recognizes the current reality: that they will remain an important diplomatic player with whom the United States must cooperate. Therefore, the Brotherhood does not want to shake up their foreign policy situation or undertake fundamental changes, since the Muslim Brotherhood wants Egypt to continue receiving American and foreign aid.

And in the context of the relationship with the occupying Israeli state, the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, Victoria Nuland, announced from Washington that the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Egypt presented guarantees to the United States in terms of respecting the peace agreement with Israel. “They have made commitments to us along those regards,” said the speaker. “So we have, in that context, had some good reassurances from different interlocutors, and we will continue to seek those kinds of reassurances going forward.” Noland also said that the United States is careful to mention that they expect that “any political actors… will uphold the international obligations of the Egyptian Government.”

Therefore, the radical speech towards the occupying Israeli state, as well as the issues regarding women and tourism, among others, will be tolerated on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the Salafis. Furthermore, all this comes in the context of necessary doctrine, legitimacy of aims and changing conditions, since an onslaught has been affected on the – potentially – harmonious American-Brotherhood relationship. It was imposed previously by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and United States and presently by the Arab Spring, which has returned the relationship to the forefront once more!