Exclusive: Al Qaeda Leader’s Brother Offers Peace Plan
The brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri is proposing to mediate a peace deal between the West and Islamists.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Mohamed al Zawahiri unveiled his proposal for the first time, saying he is in a unique position to help end the violence and that both sides need to make concessions.
As the al Qaeda leader’s brother, he says they are ideologically inseparable, and that if anyone can talk his brother out of violence it’s him.
He is like so many former prisoners I’ve met — calm, collected, focused and utterly convinced by long held views examined, tested and re-forged in incarceration.
Mohamed al Zawahiri is not a physically imposing man. His long beard is shading from grey to white, his features and figure drawn. Ramadan is long over but he still fasts until the sun goes down.
Mohamed spent 14 years in Egyptian jail on charges including terrorism and involvement in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat 1981. He denies the charges.