CAIRO
Egyptian military commanders and senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood held a rare meeting on Wednesday in Suez to ensure a peaceful Eid.
The meeting brought together Third Field Army Commander Osama Askar and Ahmed Mahmoud, the secretary of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in Suez.
"We asked the commander of the Third Army to issue a military pardon for the eight protesters who were handed jail terms by a military court. They did nothing wrong," Mahmoud told Anadolu Agency.
The meeting was held in the early morning at the headquarters of Third Army Command and discussed means of calming down the situation in the governorate.
Mahmoud said that the meeting touched on the issue of protesters arrested during pro-Morsi protests in the governorate.
Suez was the scene of fierce clashes between supporters and opponents of the ousted president.
Egyptian authorities have charged several Brotherhood members with inciting the violence, including Mahmoud himself.
This is the first meeting reported to bring together military officials and members from the Brotherhood since the army's ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, himself a senior Brotherhood leader, on July 3.
The powerful army ousted Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, following mass protests against his regime. It suspended the constitution and installed Adly Mansour, the head of the constitutional court, as interim president.
Supporters of the deposed president have since been staging mass demonstrations and sit-ins nationwide to defend his democratic legitimacy and demand his reinstatement.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
