AMMAN
Jordanian King Abdullah II on Saturday said that the Muslim Brotherhood was an organized entity that had hijacked the series of popular uprisings that swept through the Arab world and came later to be called the "Arab Spring."
In an interview with U.S. interviewer and broadcast journalist Charlie Rose, King Abdullah said the Brotherhood was an official organization in his country.
He said his government had asked the Brotherhood to be part of Jordan's political process at the beginning of the Arab Spring.
He added that the Brotherhood was the first political party he had talked to at the beginning of the spring.
King Abdullah said the Brotherhood had called for changing the Jordanian constitution, the creation of a constitutional court and a national dialogue committee, noting that most of the group's demands were met.
He noted, however, that the Brotherhood had rejected to be part of the national dialogue committee.
He said the Arab Spring was started by freedom-seeking male and female youths, but that the spring was later hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, describing it as an "organized society."
King Abdullah said the Brotherhood had taken the place of the ambitious youths who launched the revolution in Egypt.
He said in Jordan, the group had preferred to stay on the streets.
Relations between the Jordanian government and the Muslim Brotherhood has been deteriorating since April of this year against the background of regional developments, especially in the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Iraq and Syria.
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