State Dep't to hold highest-level talks with Muslim Brotherhood yet

On Wednesday a spokesman for the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party told the AFP news agency that US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns would meet with leaders of the party at its new headquarters in Cairo. He said the encounter would be “the highest-level meeting with any official from the United States.”…

Washington has said it would pursue “limited contacts” and “re-engagement” with the Brotherhood after the party took about 40 percent of votes in parliamentary elections that followed the February overthrow of longtime president Hosni Mubarak. Burns was not, however, expected to meet with representatives of Al-Nour, the hardline Salafi Islamist party that came in second at the polls.

Ahead of the visit, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Burns would discuss US “support for Egypt’s democratic political transition, including an active and independent civil society, and the current economic challenges facing Egypt.”