Egypt and Brotherhood should pursue reconciliation: minister

By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's army-backed government and the Muslim Brotherhood should seek reconciliation, a senior minister said on Tuesday, voicing a rare plea to seek compromise with a group branded "terrorists" by many of his cabinet colleagues. The army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Brotherhood in July when security forces killed hundreds of its members and jailed thousands, including Mursi, who is due to appear in court on Monday on charges of inciting violence. Yet street protests regularly erupt and Islamist militants have intensified their attacks. Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa El-Din has been trying to encourage both sides to compromise since he put an initiative to the cabinet in August. "Security is essential and key to Egypt but it is not alone going to get us where we want, and there has to be a political framework as well," Bahaa El-Din told reporters. "Ultimately this country needs to move towards a framework, of a political accord of some sort. It needs a political framework that is more inclusive for everybody." His proposal called for an immediate end to the state of emergency, political participation for all parties and the guarantee of human rights, including free assembly. But Bahaa El-Din's mission will not be easy. State-run media have whipped up public opinion against the Brotherhood and helped create a climate in which there is little tolerance for the Islamist movement that won every election since a popular uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The security clampdown has hardened the Brotherhood's position. JOIN THE ROADMAP Bahaa El-Din expressed hope a political compromise could be reached, even though the Brotherhood's top leaders are in jail and say that, as a peaceful movement, they see no need to renounce violence, a key demand made by the government in the past. "The fact that some or most or all of the leadership is in jail, I don't think that alone prevents them from taking a step forward and saying 'we are willing to give a sign that we will abandon this path (of violence) and join the roadmap'," he said. A video, released by the interior ministry showed officials from the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) visiting some of the detained Islamists including Al-Wasat party leader Abu El-Ela Madi. Officials are also seen speaking with Brotherhood leader Saad El-Husseini who, according to EOHR head Hafez Abu Saada, was the most agitated and told them that the state and the army were taking "revenge". Other more senior detainees of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its general guide Mohamed Badie, refused to meet with the human rights group, Abu Saada said. Bahaa El-Din said the Brotherhood had "a huge impact on the perpetuation and continuation of violence" and should pursue politics instead. He did not elaborate. Nearly daily street protests, clashes between supporters and opponents of Mursi and rising attacks by Islamist groups that security officials say are linked to the Brotherhood have hammered tourism and investment in Egypt, a strategic U.S. ally. Bahaa El-Din predicted Egypt's economy could withstand the upheaval, but expressed hopes that economic growth would climb to 7 percent once the political turbulence eased. Egypt had several years of growth of around seven percent before the 2011 revolt. "It will continue to grow 2 to 3 percent per year. But I wish we could do better," he said. "Egypt, like any other country, can live with a certain level of instability." (Editing by Mike Collett-White and Robin Pomeroy)