Update: EU rep meets leading Brotherhood figures

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met with representatives from the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, Tuesday. The delegation included former Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, leading Muslim Brotherhood member Amr Darrag and leaders from other parties that reject the coup and demand the reinstatement of Mohamed Morsi as president.

Ashton also met with deposed President Mohamed Morsi on Monday evening and found that he is in good health, she said in a statement to journalists on Tuesday morning in Cairo.

"We talked for two hours. We talked in depth," she said. She also reported that he has access to newspapers and that he wishes people well. Ashton added, however, that she did not know which facility he was kept at although she did see it.

"I also told him… that I was not going to represent his views, because in the circumstances he cannot correct me," Ashton said.

Morsi was ousted by the military on July 3 after mass protests demanding his resignation. He has been held incommunicado by the Armed Forces since then, though a judge announced last week that he will be jailed for 15 days pending investigations on charges espionage.

Ashton’s spokesperson Maja Kocijancic reported on her Twitter account on Tuesday that the meeting between Ashton and Morsi lasted for two hours and that it was an in-depth conversation. Kocojancic said that Ashton is the first foreign official to meet with Morsi since his ouster.

The National Association for Change expressed its dismay that Ashton was allowed to meet with the deposed president who has been held in an unknown place for more than three weeks. 

In a statement, the NAC said that it considers the visit to the deposed president to be a betrayal of the popular will of the people and a form of foreign interference in the Egyptian Affairs.

Meanwhile, some Brotherhood media said that Ashton's visit to Morsi confirms his status as the country's legitimate leader.

On her second visit to Cairo in two weeks, Ashton has been leading European diplomatic efforts to broker negotiations between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. The on going conflict since Morsi's ouster has seen several incidents of violence and scores of deaths.

The EU is seeking to fill a diplomatic gap left by the US, whose government has been somewhat critical of Morsi's ouster by the Armed Forces.

In her statement, Ashton reiterated that it is Egyptians who should decide their future and that the EU is simply helping with the mediation.

On Monday, Ashton met with Armed Forces head Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as interim president Adly Mansour and Vice President for Foreign Relations Mohamed ElBaradei.

At a joint press conference with Ashton on Tuesday, Mohamed ElBaradei said that the most important challenges currently facing Egypt are putting an end to the violence, and implementing a road map that includes all political factions.

ElBaradei said that while Morsi failed, the Muslim Brotherhood has to remain part of the political scene, adding however that there are no talks currently held between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Commenting on the clashes that occurred between pro-Morsi protesters and security forces on Friday leading to more than 60 deaths, ElBaradei said that committees must be established to investigate the violence.