Muslim Brotherhood eying government role?

LESTER HOLT, anchor (Amman, Jordan): And I 'm joined here in Amman now by our veteran Middle East correspondent Martin Fletcher . Martin , thanks for being here. You've got protesters who are demanding change. They're not negotiating. The Muslim Brotherhood , remarkably, sitting down with the government. A lot of people in Egypt and the West view this as a religious fundamentalist movement. Is it?

MARTIN FLETCHER reporting: It absolutely is. That's what they say they are. Since they were founded in 1929 , the Muslim Brotherhood have been aiming for one thing, an Islamic state . Their main slogan is the future is Islam , Islam is the future. That's what they want, that's what the brotherhood wants. The question, of course, is that in the government, if during these talks, their role will depend on how they do in the elections. And that's -- has to be free and fair.

HOLT: And what kind of government would it look -- that -- like? I mean, this is not an Islamic revolution , per se.

FLETCHER: Well, it depends on the elections, that's absolutely right. The guessing is that the Islamic -- the Muslim Brotherhood in election would get about 25 percent of the vote, and that would give them a strong minority role. But there could be surprises, bad surprises.

HOLT: You've got governments like where we are here in Jordan and Syria and other parts of Middle East who've been nervously watching all this. They've got populations who are becoming restless with the pace of reforms. We're watching in Egypt now, perhaps a chance for a peaceful transition after the violence. Would that lead to a big sigh of relief in places like where we're standing right now?

FLETCHER: Absolutely. Of course, it's still a long way to go before you find out whether there really is a peaceful transition. But certainly all the countries in the region that are affected, particularly Yemen , here in Jordan , and Algeria , looking very closely at what happens in Egypt . Egypt 's traditionally the largest country in the Arab world , the leader of the Arab world . What happens in Egypt will have a very, very loud echo in the rest of the region.

HOLT: Martin Fletcher , good talk to you, thanks so much.