McCain, Graham arrive in Cairo for talks

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham arrived in Cairo on Monday for talks with the country's military leaders and the Brotherhood opposition, the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

The two Congress members of the Defense and Armed Forces Committee traveled to Cairo at the request of US President Barack Obama, Reuters said.

"The president reached out to us, and I said obviously I'd be glad to go," Graham told reporters outside the Senate. "We want to deliver a unified message that killing the opposition is becoming more and more like a coup," and to encourage the military to move toward holding elections.

The visit came amid a turbulent political situation as talks between the ruling military junta and the Muslim Brotherhood have reached a deadlock following the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi.

"Informed sources" told MENA late on Sunday that US Deputy Secretary of State Williams Burns and the ministers of foreign affairs from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had visited the Brotherhood's senior official Khairat al-Shater in his prison during their visits to Egypt’s capital. But the group denied the news in an official statement affirming that talks should be only held with Morsi as the "legitimate representative of Egyptians.”