Amid diplomatic push by the US and the EU to resolve Egypt crisis, the country's army chief Abdel Fatah El Sisi held a five-hour meeting with an Islamist delegation to find an end to the current political impasse over the ouster of Mohammed Morsi.
Sisi "met with several representatives of the Islamist movements. And stressed that there are opportunities for a peaceful solution to the crisis provided all sides reject violence," army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement on Sunday, without specifying who his interlocutors were.
The spiritual leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and his two powerful deputies will go on trial on August 25 for their alleged involvement in protesters' deaths during demonstration against Mohammed Morsi's government. In the meeting El-Sisi asked all parties to reject violence and not to "obstruct public facilities or affect people's interests," the spokesman detailed on his official Facebook page.
El-Sisi also said that everyone should accept the roadmap the military enacted for a transition to a new Government.
Salafist preacher Mohamed Hassan confirmed that he and several Islamist figures met with El-Sisi and members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to bring forward demands of those protesting the military's removal of Morsi.
He claimed that El-Sisi promised not to forcibly disperse the sit-ins and to help set the scene for national reconciliation and in exchange demanded Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda leaders tone down their speech and not spill out onto the streets.
Hassan confirms that the five-hour meeting included Brotherhood consultative council member Abd El-Rahman El-Barr; leading member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Ayman Abd El-Ghany; leading member of the Salafist Building and Development Party Safwat Abd El-Ghany.
The alliance made three main demands. Firstly, "an end to bloodshed," and that Cairo sit-ins not to be "forcibly dispersed. lastly, they asked that all those arrested since Morsi's ouster on July 3 be released and all charges against them dropped. Secret negotiations have reportedly started between Egyptian State bodies and the Brotherhood.