A delegation of 12 MPs is due to arrive in Washington for a six-day visit on Saturday. The delegation includes the head of the Foreign Relations Committee Ahmed Said, Arab Relations Committee head Saad Al-Gammal, the Local Administration Committee's Ahmed Al-Sigini and Gamal Shiha, head of the Education Committee. They will be accompanied by deputy head of the Foreign Relations Committee Tarek Radwan, head of the Egyptian-British Parliamentary Friendship Association Dalia Youssef, appointed MP and professor of Islamic studies Amna Nosseir, Coptic MPs and political analysts Emad Gad and Suzy Rafla and member of the Economic Affairs Committee Bassant Fahmi. Mohamed Al-Sewedi, head of the majority pro-government Support Egypt bloc, said he was unable to join the delegation because of commitments in Cairo. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri met with the parliamentary delegation on Sunday. According to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid they discussed ways to strengthen Egyptian-US ties. Abu Zeid said Shoukri underlined the importance of the timing of the six-day visit which follows last month's Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh. Said told reporters the trip had originally been scheduled for January but was delayed to allow for the inauguration of US President Donald Trump and so “the delegation could be expanded and better prepare for their meetings.” “We will seek to address a range of issues concerning terrorism and human rights with American decision-makers and research centres,” he said, adding the delegation intended to discuss political Islam and the democratisation process in Egypt with both the Trump administration and Congress and lobby Republican law-makers to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation. The visit, says Youssef, comes after many members of the US Congress visited Cairo and “expressed an interest in forming an American-Egyptian parliamentary friendship association to help reinforce strategic relations between the two countries”. Radwan told Al-Ahram Weekly the delegation would be taking a report on “the crimes of the Muslim Brotherhood” to submit to US officials. “The report comes at an important time. The new US president recognises the dangers posed by political Islamist movements and many Republican Congress members, including former presidential candidate Ted Cruz, are pressing for legislation that would brand the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation,” says Radwan. Journalist and independent MP Abdel-Rehim Ali notes that “although the Trump administration has refrained from designating the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists till now officials affiliated with this administration, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are using increasingly strong language against the group.” “The parliamentary delegation should capitalise on this new situation in Washington, which finally has an administration receptive to designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist group.” “There has been a major shift in the mindset of US political leaders which we must exploit in our war against political Islam in general, and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular.” The report on political Islam to be submitted to Congress members and other officials was prepared by the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Egyptian Centre for Free Democracy Studies, says Radwan, and “includes documents and videotapes that highlight the Brotherhood's long history of violence”. The report, he added, will serve as an antidote to the campaign, led by US liberal media, to whitewash the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt's new NGO law is likely to be raised by some of the delegation's interlocutors in Washington. The law, ratified by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on 24 May, has been condemned by US senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham as “draconian” and “effectively banning the work of non-governmental organisations in Egypt”. Radwan says he doubts either senator has read the new NGO law and “hopes we will be able to hold meetings to discuss it, and other issues, in a transparent way”.
