US would be 'satisfied' with Brotherhood win in Egypt
The United States will judge elected parties in the MidEast based "on what they do and not what they're called," AFP reports.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERSEgyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders 311 (R)(photo credit: Amr Dalsh / Reuters)The United States would be "satisfied" should free elections in Egypt produce a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood, AFP reported Friday according to the US's special coordinator for transitions in the Middle East, William Taylor.Taylor said the US would judge elected parties in the Middle East based "on what they do, and not what they're called," AFP quoted him as saying. He added that he did not meet with Brotherhood officials in his latest visit to Cairo, but would have had he been given the chance.RELATED:Islamist victory in Tunisia polls The point man on Middle East transitions said that so-called Arab Spring revolutions and a desire for democratic elections create an environment in which groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are able to shed associations with terror.Taylor's comments came the week after Tunisia - widely seen as the birthplace of Arab Spring revolutions - elected its own Islamist Ennahda party to form a governing coalition.
Ennahda emerged the victor in the nation's first ever free elections.The party, banned before the revolution that ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, won 90 of the 217 seats in the new assembly.It was not, however, an outright win.The party is expected to form a coalition with two of the secularist runners-up.Ennahda's leader is pledging a new dawn for Tunisians.
Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, said, "We give our promise to them to continue to realize the aims of the revolution in a Tunisia that is free, independent, developing and prosperous, and where the rights of God, the Prophet, women, men, the religious and non-religious, are assured because Tunisia is for everybody."
