Egypt

State Dept: US officials not meeting with Muslim Brotherhood

US officials will not meet with visiting members of a delegation from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday.

Egypt summoned the US ambassador in Cairo to show displeasure at Muslim Brotherhood figures coming to Washington for a private conference, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

"There was never any meeting planned," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said at a news briefing. "We haven't reversed a decision. We've met with them in the past, and our policy remains the same."

The tensions reflect a clash between US diplomats' desire to deal with the whole political spectrum in Egypt and a fear of alienating Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in 2013.

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