Former Mubarak minister says Muslim Brotherhood is ‘godfather’ of Al Qaida, Daesh

Dubai: A former Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs who served under ousted president Hosni Mubarak has said many Islamist terror groups operating in the Middle East have roots in the Muslim Brotherhood.

"They are the godfather of Daesh, and Al Nusra [Front], and Al Qaida and all of these groups … and all of these threats,” said Ahmad Abu Al Geit, who served as foreign minister from 2004 to 2011, at the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai on Sunday.

The Al Nusra Front is a branch of Al Qaida operating in Syria. Al Geit, who also served as Egypt’s representative to the UN from 1999 to 2004, said Muslim Brotherhood members should dissolve the group and renounce acts of violence.

Mohammad Mursi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood member, was Egypt’s first democratically elected president following the popular unrest that ousted the Mubarak regime. Mursi was subsequently ousted in a coup by now-Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi.

Geit, who regularly singled out the Muslim Brotherhood, said the punishment of Islamist movements operating in Egypt “must be severe from the Egyptian armed forces.”