White House: Obama Has No Plans 'at This Time' to Meet with Muslim Brotherhood

The White House has denied an Egyptian news report claiming Barack Obama agreed to meet with Muslim Brotherhood officials, stating that the President currently has no plans to meet with the controversial Islamic fundamentalist political party.

“Egyptian press reports that the President has agreed to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood are completely false,” the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden told Breitbart News in an email statement Thursday. “The President has no such plans at this time.”

The Egypt Independent reported earlier in the week that Obama had agreed to meet with Muslim Brotherhood representatives at the White House:

Obama would reportedly meet with Brotherhood officials to “hear their opinion” on developments in Egypt, in the presence of Turkish diplomats.

Egypt Independent heard from sources inside the Muslim Brotherhood that Islamist-linked billionaire Hassen Malek requested a meeting through Obama’s office manager.

The meeting with Turkish officials is expected to take place this month.

A delegation of Muslim Brotherhood officials from Egypt visited White House personnel in April of 2012. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that envoys from the Muslim Brotherhood met with “mid-level” officials from the National Security Council in Washington. 

“The meeting [in 2012] with working-level [national security staff] officials is just one in a series of meetings between US officials, members of Congress, and representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told Politico at the time. “Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and others have met with members of the MB during their visits to Egypt, and US officials, as part of their routine diplomatic outreach, continue to meet with representatives as well.”

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) visited Egypt recently and called for the release of Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Both lawmakers referred to the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi as a “military coup.”