CAIRO
A high-level African Union (AU) delegation departed from Cairo on Thursday following a week-long visit to Egypt.
Led by former Malian president Alpha Oumar Konare, delegation members held talks with Egyptian officials on the country's precarious political situation.
The move comes in light of the AU Peace and Security Council's decision to suspend Egypt's membership in the pan-African body following the Egyptian army's July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi.
The AU delegation met with interim President Adly Mansour, Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi, Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, and a host of other officials and figures.
Speaking at a Wednesday press conference in Cairo, Konare called on Egyptian political forces – including the embattled Muslim Brotherhood – to join Egypt's transitional roadmap, imposed by the army following Morsi's overthrow.
Konare noted that delegation members had managed to hold discussions with members of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).
The visit, he added, aimed to "strengthen confidence" between Egypt and African institutions and drum up local support for the army's transitional roadmap.
"I hope that all of Egypt's political forces, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood and its FJP, will support the transitional roadmap," Konare declared.
A similar AU delegation visited Egypt last month to assess the situation on the ground, listen to the views of the country's various political forces and report its findings to the AU leadership.
The earlier delegation released a statement about its findings after its mission in Cairo from July 27 to August 4, in which it avoided using either the term "military coup" or "revolution" to describe recent events in Egypt.
