The Muslim Brotherhood—the parent organization of Hamas—is sending a delegation to Washington to lobby against the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In January, State Department officials met with a similar delegation; Eric Trager argues that the White House should not allow this to happen again:
While the delegation will likely draw interest from the media and think-tank communities, the Obama administration should not engage with it at any level. Given the Brotherhood’s explicit embrace of violence and calls for Sisi’s death, U.S. engagement with the Brotherhood at this time will undermine the administration’s efforts to strengthen relations with Cairo. It will also undercut the administration’s attempts at encouraging the Sisi government toward greater political openness. . . .
[T]he administration is correct in its analysis that the Sisi government’s crackdown on opposition activists and media, as well as the restrictive environment for non-governmental organizations, may once again catalyze a destabilizing political explosion, as in January 2011 and June 2013. By meeting with the Brotherhood, however, the Obama administration will damage its credibility for influencing Egypt in this direction, since the Sisi government and its many supporters will interpret these calls for openness as enabling the Brotherhood’s return to politics—a prospect that the regime and its supporters view as suicidal.
Read more on Washington Institute: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-administration-should-not-meet-with-the-muslim-brotherhood-in-washingto