And yet Tom Friedman said it was “pure crap” for American Jews to criticize Obama’s commitment to Israel.

CAIRO (Reuters) — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood welcomes any formal contacts with the United States as a way to clarify its vision but no such contacts have yet been made, a spokesman for the Islamist group said on Thursday.

A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday that the United States had decided to resume formal contacts with the Brotherhood, a step that reflects its growing political weight but is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.

“We welcome such relationships with everyone because those relations will lead to clarifying our vision. But it won’t include or be based on any intervention in the internal affairs of the country,” spokesman Mohamed Saad el-Katatni told Reuters.