Two senior U.S. senators have urged Egypt’s military-backed government to release detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood before starting negotiations.

Tuesday’s comments came after John McCain and Lindsey Graham met with top military and civilian leaders in Cairo as part of a flurry of international efforts to resolve a standoff with supporters of the ousted president Mohammed Morsi.

McCain said “we urge the release of political prisoners,” referring to Brotherhood members who have been detained since Morsi’s ouster by the military on July 3.

“In democracy, you sit down and talk to each other,” Graham said, adding, “it is impossible to talk to somebody who is in jail.”

Egypt’s interim presidency denounced “foreign pressure” in a sign of its growing impatience with international mediations.

(AP)