US embassy cable - 05CAIRO4577

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 004577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KISL, EG 
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON THE GOE-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD STAND OFF 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 3941 
 
     B. CAIRO 3755 
     C. CAIRO 3424 
 
Classified by ECPO Counselor John Desrocher for reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d). 
 
1. (U) Government sources quoted in media reports claim that 
approximately 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), 
detained during a large GOE arrest campaign in May (reftels), 
were released in the week of June 13.  The GOE maintains that 
349 of the MB members arrested in May remain in custody. 
 
2. (SBU) The MB, according to information posted on its own 
website, acknowledges releases but maintains that about 590 
of what it claims were 2400 MB members detained in May remain 
in custody.  The GOE has not released two senior members of 
the MB - Essam Erian, arrested on May 8, and Mahmoud Ezzat, 
arrested on May 22 (reftels).  Their arrests broke a 
precedent that had held for at least ten years - that the GOE 
would not target the MB's senior eschelon for arrest.  Their 
arrests were cited by observers as evidence that relations 
between the GOE and the MB, tense but generally on slow-boil 
in recent years, was heating up into a full confrontation. 
 
3. (C) The release of the hundreds picked up in May is the 
first sign that the confrontation could be cooling. 
Opposition leader Ayman Nour told poloff during a June 16 
meeting that GOE security officials and the MB had recently 
concluded a "truce" whereby the MB would agree to refrain 
from staging the unauthorized demonstrations that sparked the 
latest round of confrontation this spring, in exchange for 
the release of most of those arrested in May. 
 
4. (C) On the other hand, elements of the MB leadership have 
continued to make provocative statements in the media.  For 
example, Afaq Arabiya, the MB's weekly paper, printed a 
column on June 9 asserting the group's right to form a 
political party.  The same issue quoted MB Deputy Supreme 
Guide Mohammed Habib as calling for a "national alliance 
against the regime."  Such sentiments would certainly seem to 
be crossing the "red lines" defining what is permissible and 
what is not, at least under the "old rules," which, as noted 
ref C, have been markedly receding in the spring of 2005. 
 
 
Visit Embassy Cairo's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/cairo 
 
You can also access this site through the 
State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. 
 
GRAY