CAIRO, March 1 (UPI) -- Opposition parties in Egypt blasted former U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei for courting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in a possible presidential bid.
Refaat el-Sayed, the leader of the leftist Tagammu Party, said ElBaradei was out of step with political currents in Cairo by offering a hand to the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reports.
"ElBaradei thinks he can unite the Egyptian opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, whose ideas we reject," he said.
ElBaradei led the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2009, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. ElBaradei returned to Cairo in February, lending speculation to allegations he would challenge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 elections.
El-Sayed said the returning Egyptian leader was out of step with opposition trends in the Cairo political scene.
ElBaradei's courtship of the Muslim Brotherhood, which secured several seats in 2005 parliamentary elections, was a detriment to the opposition movement, el-Sayed said. An alliance, he added, would only hurt political reform when "we are demanding pluralism and respect for human rights."
