Essam El-Erian, a leading member of EgyptÂ’s Muslim Brotherhood, has accused a former senior member of the Palestinian Fatah movement of plotting to undermine security in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
| How hard could that be... |
In an interview Saturday with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, El-Erian accused Mohamed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief, of recruiting armed elements in the peninsula through funds from the United Arab Emirates.
| Dahlan is a scumbag, but he's a mighty clever scumbag, and a survivor, so yep he could be doing this alright... |
The senior Brotherhood figure did not rule out Dahlan's involvement in the abduction of Egyptian security personnel in Sinai 10 days ago.
"Dahlan employs 500-600 armed elements who are now wreaking havoc in Sinai and finances them from the UAE coffers," El-Erian claimed in the interview. "It's a disaster that such a situation prevails in Sinai."
Tensions between the UAE and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have been mounting recently, exacerbated by the UAE's arrest of several Egyptians linked to the Brotherhood leadership last January. The suspects were accused of forming a local Brotherhood cell with the goal of overthrowing the UAE regime. UAE officials have reiterated charges that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group is linked to an alleged plot to topple the UAE government to serve an ultimate goal of establishing Islamist rule in all Gulf States.
Fatah has been swift to dismiss El-Erian's allegations. The movement condemned what it described as attempts to "smear its heroic history by associating its name with domestic issues in Egypt, in order to serve some beneficiaries of political parties and figures."
In a Sunday statement, the group lambasted what it perceived as constant and systematic attempts to incite anti-Palestine sentiment in Egypt. Such attempts "would not reach their objective among the Egyptian people, who are filled with pan-Arabism and [support] for the Palestinian cause, and are able to discern the facts," read the statement.
The group also made it clear it does not involve itself in any activity "outside the scope of the movement's vision and regulations." |