Egyptian media is reporting that a delegation openly identifying itself as the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood visited the party headquarters of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood political party where they met with its leaders. According to a report in Al-Masry Al-Youm:
Al-Masry Al-Youm Sun, 09/09/2012 – A delegation from the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood and its political party visited the headquarters of the Freedom and Justice Party Saturday to meet with FJP leaders. The meeting was attended by Ayad al-Samarrai, secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party; Saad al-Katatny, former speaker of Egypt’s People’s Assembly; and Essam al-Erian, acting head of the FJP. Samarrai, who also serves as the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, said he came to Egypt to visit a number of political leaders, including President Mohamed Morsy, as well as Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb and Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie. ‘We discussed many issues, especially the situation in Iraq, and trade between our two countries in order to develop Egyptian-Iraqi relations. We also talked about the political situation in the Arab region,’ Samarrai said. He added that the delegation explained to the FJP the Iraqi initiative to resolve the crisis in Syria. ‘The efforts of Egypt and Iraq must be united until the Syrian people gain the freedom to elect their president,’ he said, adding that Egyptian and Iraqi pressure on the regime in Syria could end the bloodshed. Samarrai stressed that the visit was an effort to coordinate on economic and political issues as Egyptian companies must be encouraged to cooperate with Iraqi companies to stimulate economic development. Samarrai invited the FJP to visit Iraq soon and said President Morsy should visit Iraq so that agreements can be made between the Iraqi and Egyptian governments for coordination on many issues.
A post from August reported on the election of Ayad Al-Samarra’i as the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). As discussed in a post from May 2009, Usama al-Tikriti had previously been chosen to head the IIP. Knowledgable sources report that Usama Al-Tikriti has also been serving as the General Guide (leader) for the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq and is likely to retain that position. Usama al-Tikriti is also the father of Anas al-Tikriti, the former leader of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and now a leader in the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), both part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya is reporting that the fugitive former Vice-President of Iraq, Tareq al-Hashemi, was sentence in absentia to death by hanging for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general. According to the report:
An Iraqi judge on Sunday sentenced fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to death by hanging for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general, a spokesman for the judiciary council said. ‘The high criminal court issued a death sentence by hanging against Tareq al-Hashemi after he was convicted,’ spokesman Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar said. His secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan was also sentenced to die. The trial, which began in May, covered the first of around 150 charges leveled against Hashemi and his bodyguards. Hashemi was tried in absentia. A statement posted on his website on August 10 said he was in Doha, Qatar. He fled to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region when the charges were made in December, as U.S. troops were pulling out of the country. Hashemi, a Sunni, fled the country earlier this year after authorities sought his arrest. His case sparked a political crisis in the country’s power-sharing government among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political blocs. Hashemi accused Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of conducting a political witch-hunt against Sunni opponents, but the government said it was a judicial case. Hashemi is currently in Turkey. The scheduled trial of was postponed for a while in May, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported. Hashemi had continued to dismiss the charges as politically-motivated. The charges were leveled in December after U.S. troops completed their pullout, sparking a political crisis that saw Hashemi’s bloc boycott cabinet and parliament over accusations Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was monopolizing power.
Tareq al-Hashemi had been general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) until May 2009.The IIP has always been known to be strongly tied to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to a profile posted on globalsecurity.org:
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), established in 1960, is the major Sunni political organization in the country …The party was suppressed during the regime of former President Saddam Hussein. Many of its members were forced to flee the country. The party returned to public life after coalition forces occupied Iraq. The IIP seeks to preserve the leading role Sunnis have had in running the country starting with the establishment of the modern Iraqi state in the beginning of the 20th century. The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed as an Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood organization, and conducted underground work during the Baathist period. Thee party does not considers itself a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood Group, established in Egypt in 1994, nor a political front for it in Iraq. The Iraqi Islamic Party acknowledges strong ties to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood through political and intellectual alliances.