The return of Egyptian TV broadcaster Tarek Abdel Gaber to Egypt earlier this month has reopened the debate on a reconciliation between the Brotherhood and the ruling regime. Abdel Gaber, who worked for an Islamic-leaning station, had fled to Turkey in the wake of the June 30, 2013, events and after openly declaring his support for the July 2013 sit-in at Rabia al-Adawiya that called for reinstating ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Gaber, who is suffering from cancer, had previously expressed his desire to return to Egypt for treatment but he feared arrest for being associated with a group the state deems a terrorist organization.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was the country’s top military leader at the time of Morsi’s ouster, had agreed to develop a new road map for the country that included reconciliation with “all personalities who enjoy credibility and acceptance by all national elites and represent different movements.” The road map was also subject to a number of conditions, most notably that all of its items shall take into consideration preserving the country's security and stability.

Sisi held lengthy meetings March 22 with a group of intellectuals, later dubbed the "Group of 24." Shortly afterward, a number of intellectuals who had not attended the meetings drafted a detailed paper on the proposed procedures in order to bridge the gap between the state’s considerations and the general principles of freedoms and human rights.

People from three groupings — media and young people, human rights and public freedoms, and social justice — have been working to develop mechanisms to deal with and implement the road map related to these groupings.