Building Egypt should be first priority of all Egyptians

Question: Mr. Hamouda should not the rival groups, at this current situation, put aside their differences and just find a compromise?
 
Hamouda: Well, the situation is that the Muslim Brotherhood, they do not want to accept the will of the Egyptian people. I happened to be in Cairo until my return to London on July 5 and I noticed the number of people, huge numbers. I was lucky enough to be in Cairo on January 25 and the month after and I felt that this time the people who took to the streets were outnumbering those who appeared in the streets on January 11.
 
The reason is that people felt that the legitimacy of the ballot boxes concluded when the elected official took office on June 13 last year and started after that is the legitimacy of good governance and the implementation of the social contract on the basis of which the president was elected. Neither of these were fulfilled.
 
They also felt that four months before the June 13 all attempts appeared to have failed and there was no way but to try and collect signatures calling for the dismissal of the president.
 
Q: Would you say then the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is refusing to take part in the interim government is not helping?
 
Hamouda: Absolutely it is not helping. The Muslim Brotherhood, according to the number of people who are students of the Islamic Movement in Egypt and the former leaders of the Islamic Military, Jihadi, Salafis and others, they criticize the Muslim Brotherhood for being out of touch and standing against all the Egyptian people. I can tell you that some of them accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of committing political suicide because of the failure over a year and failure to create a political rapport and sympathy with the Egyptian people who had first priority to solve their life problems but not to have the fluid political situation..., to create a state to their liking.
 
 
Q: Mr. Hamouda you are referring there to the arguments that have been made by the side that is saying that the Muslim Brotherhood should reach a compromise with us but we know that both sides now have their demands, so what is the solution and if that solution is not reached what awaits Egypt?
 
Hamouda: Well, the solution is, from the point of view of the present government, the solution is for the Muslim Brotherhood to accept coming into the new political process and recognize the fact that they failed at a very critical time in Egypt’s history and the state is about to collapse because of the weak economy and the absence of security, etc. which they could not bring in and in that respect they should come with everyone else to try and hold their hands and solve problem but it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood is refusing that now and that brings about a threat of clampdown on them by the state security in order to bring some kind of order.
 
This will bring some kind of blame and accusations of violence and human rights and this is what they want, they want to taint to the present government of being anti-human rights and anti everything that the international community recognizes against, the fact that the priority now is to build the country.
 
Q: Mr. Hamouda what do you think about the influence of outside forces? I mean there are a lot of people who are saying that certain regional countries as well as countries as our guest there was saying like the UK or Washington, are trying to influence the situation and they would benefit from a divided or a chaotic Egypt.
 
How valid do you think that argument is?
 
Hamouda: Well, it is really dangerous and thinking about it from the Egyptian point of view, there are so many documents which were found in the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood showing lists of the leading members with sums received from the state of Qatar. This is an open secret on the Internet in Egypt and someone spoke about it on television and said if anyone has a reservation can challenge me, no one came.
 
The other thing is the meeting which took place in Istanbul the day before yesterday, of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood and their plans for Egypt and elsewhere, obviously they feel that they were hit hard in the center, in Cairo, in Egypt, and this could affect their influence elsewhere in the Muslim World and in the Arab world.
 
This can be extremely dangerous if they try to plot and plan and present what happened in Egypt not as a popular revolt against the failing government but as a military coup, but I am really gratified to find that Mr. Freeman (other guest of the program) providing a point of view from Washington, which shows a great deal of understanding and Mr. Burns’ visited Cairo yesterday and said that they are not taking sides, they would like Egypt to take a democratic course again.
 
The invitation is there for the Muslim Brotherhood. The problem is that even before Mr. Morsi was removed his leading members of the Ikhwan (Brotherhood), they started saying anyone who will throw water on him, we will throw blood on them.
 
What happened by the Republican Guard, and by the way I was on my way to Cairo airport at the time, I saw people marching towards the Republican Guard and the other military sites in Cairo in a state which is conducive to aggression and not only to peace and I was advised (told) after that, that the first three people to be killed were the military soldiers.
 
Q: Mr. Hamouda let us just refer to the issue of Israel. I mean what do you think the position of Israel is? Is it, as some people say, happy with the situation right now in Egypt or is it concerned? Because we know that the Muslim Brotherhood was accused of actually not doing enough when it comes to Israel, keeping that peace treaty going.
 
Do you think that there is a concern now by Israel that that treaty could be in danger?
 
Hamouda: No, the peace treaty is not in danger. Israel, when the situation deteriorated in Sinai, accepted that the Egyptian military should increase their presence in the Sinai in order to quell the terrorist attacks there especially the attacks on the gas pipelines.
 
    Morsi and his regime have agreed to allow Israel to fit electronic sensors in the Sinai peninsula in order to detect movements, which can be hostile to Israel and that is something which was said that Mubarak did not agree to.
 
And there are also some other talks about agreements which were held by the Muslim Brotherhood government and Israel, which I do not want to talk about or confirm because I need more information to speak about that.
 
So the situation is that actually, I think, Israel and America, they would like to have a stable Egypt because peace will need a stable and a strong government.
 
Morsi and his supporters before his removal, started urging the tribes in the desert regions around Egypt in Sinai and in the Western desert and said that they will stand by Morsi against any other and this means that they were plotting something or trying to incite those tribes to support him against the majority of the Egyptian people and by the way what is going on in Sinai is...
 
Q: Regarding what was just said, Mr. Hamouda your concluding remarks. Do you think there is now real concerns that Egypt could be following the route of Libya or Syria, etc. as some have been saying?
 
What is your prediction for the coming weeks and months?
 
Hamouda: Well, my expectation is that the Muslim Brotherhood, in their stubbornness and denial of reality, what they are going to do is that they are going to continue with their opposition but small splinters and elements, especially the Jihadi, Salafis, etc. in some parts of the country, they could launch a campaign of terror similar to that which appeared in Egypt in the late 80’s and early 90’s but I do not think that this will leave a great impact to unify the Egyptian people even more and will complete the political suicide of the Islamists’ politics in Egypt.