Cairo: A senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood, that holds nearly half of the Egyptian parliament, has warned that the US threat of suspending $1.3b in annual aid to Egypt might prompt the Arab word's most populous country to reconsider its peace treaty with Israel.
"The US aid is an integral part of the (1978) Camp David treaty (with Israel) guaranteed by the US itself," said Mohammad Mursi, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.
"The US threat to suspend the aid is ill-placed, otherwise the treaty will be reconsidered," he added in a statement.
Non-government organisations
Several US congressmen have recently called for cutting the aid, annually received by Egypt since it signed its treaty with Israel, after Cairo referred to a criminal trial 43 people, including 19 Americans, working for non-governmental organisations.
Egyptian authorities have said that the defendants operated in the country without licences and received illegal foreign funding. The moved has caused the worst crisis in ties between Washington and the Egyptian military-backed government since a popular revolt removed former president Hosni Mubarak last February.
Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri last week vowed "no climbdown" in Egypt's stance on the row, saying it was a judicial, not political, issue.
