CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi yesterday appeared to rule out reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, raising the spectre of a prolonged conflict with a group he said was finished.
Sisi, who ousted the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi from the presidency last July after mass protests against Mursi’s rule, accused the Brotherhood of links to violent militant groups, adding that two plots to assassinate him had been uncovered.
“I want to tell you that it is not me that finished (the Brotherhood). You, the Egyptians, are the ones who finished it,” Sisi said in a joint interview with Egypt’s privately owned CBC and ONTV television channels broadcast yesterday.
Asked whether the Brotherhood would cease to exist during his presidency, Sisi answered: “Yes. That’s right.”
Sisi is expected to easily win the May 26-27 presidential election. The only other candidate is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 election won by Mursi.
Sisi’s supporters view him as a decisive figure who can stabilise a country plagued by street protests and political violence since an army-backed popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
The Brotherhood, which says it is committed to peaceful activism, has accused Sisi of staging a coup and masterminding the removal of Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.
Sisi, a head of military intelligence under Mubarak, confirmed rumours that there had been attempts on his life, highlighting the security challenges facing Egypt, a strategic US ally in the heart of the Arab world.
Sisi said there were “two attempts to assassinate me. I believe in fate, I am not afraid.”
An Islamist militant insurgency has been growing since Mursi’s overthrow. Islamist militants have killed several hundred members of the security forces in bombings and shootings. The interior minister survived an attempt on his life in September.
The army-backed authorities have outlawed the Brotherhood, which won all the elections after Mubarak’s fall. Thousands of its supporters have been arrested and hundreds killed. Top leaders, including Mursi, are on trial.
