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Lawmakers Tell Biden Administration to Withhold All Military Aid to Egypt


WASHINGTON – Seven Democratic lawmakers are asking the Biden administration to withhold $300 million in military aid to Egypt until the country improves its human rights record, according to a congressional letter to the State Department. deliver.

The lawmakers, led by the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, said in letter that they are concerned “about the ongoing, widespread and systematic human rights violations in Egypt that threaten to destabilize the country” and note many political prisonersincluding some lawful permanent residents of the United States, who “were subjected to abuse and ill-treatment such as torture and medical neglect.”

Lawmakers cited the State Department’s 2021 country reports on Egypt as well Articles of The New York Times about human rights violations in the country. The Times articles described a brutal crackdown on dissidents by Egypt’s military-backed president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose government exploit the justice system holds thousands of political prisoners – including some arrested for petty crimes like liking an anti-government Facebook post – in harsh and often deadly conditions.

The group called on the State Department to withhold the full amount of aid it supposedly earmarked for human rights reform, which for the next year is $300 million. US officials said the State Department is expected to decide soon how much aid it will provide to Egypt.

Egypt has been one of the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid since becoming the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, its eastern neighbor, in 1979, following the Camp David Accords. America mediates.

Egypt typically receives about $1.3 billion in aid annually from the United States and purchases billions of dollars more in American military equipment each year, though $300 million in aid comes with constraints. Earlier this year, the Biden administration blocked $130 million of that section, saying that the country would have to show more progress on human rights, despite lawmakers’ requests to withhold the full amount. (The same week, it also approved $2.5 billion in military sales to Egypt.)

Even with that reduction, Egypt remains the third largest recipient of US military aid in the world, behind only Ukraine and Israel.

In January, Mr. Meeks and other lawmakers urged the administration to adhere to the criteria they had set for Egypt by September 2021 and continue withholding $130 million in aid for Egypt’s sake. has not significantly improved its human rights situation. Last year’s criteria focused on political prisoners and other rights issues, although they were never made public.

The lawmakers, all of whom are members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent the latest letter to the State Department on Tuesday and plan to make it public on Wednesday. The New York Times obtained a copy of the letter.

Asked at a news conference on Tuesday whether all $300 million would be withheld this year, Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, said the agency would continue to discuss the matter. with American lawmakers and Egyptian officials. He said the administration has made it clear to Egypt that improving human rights and civil liberties “will ultimately lead to a stronger and stronger bilateral relationship between the United States and Egypt.”

He added that Egypt is an “indispensable partner” in the region. The United States cooperates with Egypt on Middle East security, including against militants in Egypt’s Sinai province, and views it as an important mediator between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

US officials working on human rights issues have advocated in internal discussions to withhold some or all of the aid to Egypt, US officials familiar with the debate said.

Lawmakers’ push for accountability from Egypt is the latest instance in which members of Congress have urged the Biden administration to take a stronger stance on human rights in authoritarian countries in the Middle East. Members of the Senate and House of Representatives recently sent separate letters to the State Department and the Pentagon ask them to report on how US-made weapons have been used by a Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen, where many civilians were killed.

Over the summer, several lawmakers, including senior Democrats, criticized President Biden for agreeing to travel to Saudi Arabia, where he Meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young de facto ruler of the kingdom who presided over unrelenting persecution in the country as well as the war in Yemen. Mr. Biden said during the 2020 presidential campaign that he would consider Saudi Arabia a “bad guy” for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, by Saudi agents. Ut in 2018. US intelligence agencies concluded that they believed that Crown Prince Mohammed ordered the killing.

Senior administration officials say the “democracy against autocracy” model is central to Biden’s thinking, and they say the president has the goal of convening a second Summit soon because Democracy. Many countries attended the first conclave last December, but Egypt did not invited.

Proponents of maintaining Egyptian aid warn that the aid cuts risk ceding influence among Egyptian officials to China and Russia. But those calling for less funding say Egypt often responds to US concerns when they come with the threat of cuts.

Seth Binder, advocacy director for the Middle East Democracy Project, said: “An extra $300 million is unnecessary for Egypt’s security, unnecessary for U.S. security, and undermines credibility. credibility of the United States in Egypt and around the world,” said Seth Binder, advocacy director for the Middle East Democracy Project, a Washington-based group. “If the administration is serious about putting human rights at the center of its foreign policy, this decision is easy.”

As US and international pressure on Egypt over human rights increased over the past year, Mr. el-Sisi’s government advocated a new “human rights strategy”, release several hundred political prisoners, and began dialogue with the opposition to discuss more political openness.

But human rights groups call those steps aesthetic, noting that freedoms are still heavily restricted and that the Egyptian security services continue to make politically motivated arrests, torture, medical neglect in prison, extrajudicial murder and enforced disappearance.

Edward Wong reported from Washington, and Vivian Yee from Cairo.



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