After meeting Burns, the Brotherhood’s political arm stressed its continued commitment to “legitimacy, which stipulates the return of the president, the constitution and the Shura Council,” or upper house of parliament.
The Islamists’ latest declaration suggested Burns had failed to shift their position.
“We affirm our welcome of any political solutions proposed on the basis of constitutional legitimacy and rejection of the coup,” said the Freedom and Justice Party statement.
Burns also met foreign minister Nabil Fahmy in a bid to broker a compromise as Washington kept up the pressure from afar, with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel urging Sisi to support an “inclusive political process”, the Pentagon said.
The diplomatic push came as the Washington Post published an interview with Sisi in which he urged Washington to pressure Morsi supporters to end their rallies.
“The US administration has a lot (of) leverage and influence with the Muslim Brotherhood and I’d really like the US administration to use this leverage with them to resolve the conflict,” he said.
Sisi said that police, not the military, would be charged with dispersing the protests, and insisted that millions of Egyptians “are waiting for me to do something”.
But Fahmy insisted authorities have “no desire to use force if there is any other avenue that has not been exhausted.”
“There is an open invitation for all political forces to participate. The door is open for everybody, including the Brotherhood, to participate in the process,” he told reporters.
The interior ministry has warned that protesters not quitting the sit-ins would be exposed “to legal action over the involvement in several criminal acts by some in the gatherings, including killing, torture, kidnap, carrying weapons…and incitement to violence.”
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