Obama Admin Says It Remains In Constant Contact With The Muslim Brotherhood In Egypt

John Kerry, Reporting For An Ass-Reaming

From the State Dept. Website:

15 March 2014 

MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. I’m very happy to be able to welcome Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf back to the FPC. This is now her third briefing here, so we are being – I think we’re able to call it a regular briefing now, and there’ll be many more. She’ll make a few brief comments, and then we’ll open – the floor to questions. She does have to leave fairly soon, so we’ll get right to it. Thank you. 

MS. HARF: Thank you. And if you saw the end of my briefing today at the State Department, I told them I had to leave early there to come brief you, so I just want to make sure everyone knows I’m trying to make time. 

QUESTION: Okay. The second question is: The State Department has recently said that it is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood, as with the other political groups, you see? 

MS. HARF: Mm-hmm, yes. 

QUESTION: So do you think that these contacts have any effect on the United States relations with Egypt? And are these just mere contacts or support? Because this is very important for the Egyptian public opinion. Thanks. 

MS. HARF: Well, they’re contacts, and let’s just – I’ll put it in a little context here. We think it’s important to have contacts with all the parties in Egypt, because all the parties in Egypt ultimately are going to need to be a part of Egypt’s future, and that we want to help them be a part of that future and move Egypt out of the situation it’s in today. So we think this is important to do. Do we always agree, do they always agree with what we’re saying? Of course not. But we believe it’s important to have the dialogue. 

We don’t support one party or one group or one person. So when we’re talking about elections, when – I know there’s a lot of conspiracy theories about us supporting the Muslim Brotherhood or supporting the military or – there’s a lot. They can’t all be true, right? Because they’re mutually exclusive. But we don’t support one group. We support the process. We support the people of Egypt who make up these parties – right – as they are trying to determine how to get Egypt back on a better path. So we speak very clearly to dispel some of those rumors because I agree that on the ground, those rumors aren’t helpful, and sometimes they hurt our efforts, which is why we have to speak very clearly and say we don’t take sides here in Egypt’s future.