TRIPOLI: Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood is threatening to quit the cabinet of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, angry over a visit to Cairo they claim served to legitimise the coup in neighbouring Egypt.
Zeidan travelled to Egypt last week and met interim president Adly Mansour, as well as General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who led the July 3 coup that ousted president Mohammed Mursi, who hails from the Egyptian branch of the Brotherhood.
Following that trip, the Libyan Brotherhood’s political arm, the Party of Justice and Construction, issued a statement criticising the trip.
According to the PJC, it constituted an “open recognition of the coup d’etat and of its instigators, who have committed crimes and violations of human rights” against members of the Egyptian Brotherhood.
The party further accused Zeidan of trying to “distract public opinion from domestic matters” and spoke of his government’s “bitter failure” at all levels, particularly in terms of insecurity, corruption and plunging oil production.
But Zeidan struck back, telling a news conference on Sunday that his trip was “in the nation’s interest,” highlighting close ties with Egypt and underlining the importance of bilateral cooperation.
He also noted that the Muslim Brotherhood and the PJC had been hostile to his premiership from the outset and that they had only reluctantly joined the government in the first place.
AFP
