POLITICS-EGYPT: U.S. Row Setback To War On Terror

By Cam McGrath Reprint | | Print |

Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Sep 13 2002 (IPS) - Soured relations between Egypt and the United States threaten to undermine Arab support for Washington’s war on terror and proposed military intervention in Iraq.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is a key ally in the war on terror and one of only a handful of Arab leaders to support the campaign since its inception one year ago. His commitment to assisting U.S. investigators and drumming up support among other Arab leaders earned him Washington’s blessings.

Last January, the U.S. announced it would accelerate the dispersal of 959 million U.S. dollars of backlog aid to Egypt. The funds came in addition to the two billion U.S. dollars in economic and military assistance that Washington gives to Egypt each year as part of the 1978 Camp David Accords. USAID director, Willard Pearson, said at the time that the unscheduled funds were economically motivated. “These funds are to help alleviate the economic consequences to Egypt of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and to support Egypt in its economic reform efforts,” he said.

But most political analysts recognised the aid, coupled with hefty military hardware contracts, as a reward for Egypt’s leading role in the anti-terrorism campaign.

Since September 11, Egypt has rounded up hundreds Islamists and provided vital information to assist the U.S. in its global campaign. The efforts reflect the government’s tough stance on terrorism, but were also an excuse to silence political opponents, namely members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. “Some countries, such as Russia, Uzbekistan, and Egypt, are using the war on terror to justify abusive military campaigns or crackdowns on domestic political opponents,” warns Human Rights Watch.

The U.S. turned a blind eye to Egypt’s human rights violations until July 29, when a state security court sentenced civil rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim to seven years in prison following a retrial in which he was convicted on charges of embezzlement, accepting foreign funds without government authorisation, and tarnishing Egypt’s image.

The 64-year-old sociology professor, who holds dual American and Egyptian citizenship, was arrested in 2000 after the private think tank he ran, the Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies (IKCDS), announced plans to monitor Egypt’s parliamentary elections. Human rights groups say the “trumped up” charges were aimed at preventing the IKCDS from exposing election fraud.

The Bush administration condemned the court’s conviction and criticised Egypt’s human rights records, threatening on August 15 to withhold a special 130 million dollar aid package earmarked for Egypt. The move prompted a public backlash that has soured relations between the two countries. “Egypt does not accept pressure and will not bow to pressure, and everyone knows that,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher told reporters.

Maher’s statements reflect popular sentiment. Representatives of various Egyptian groups have come forward to denounce Washington’s interference and affirm their unity with the government in resisting it. Even Islamists and opposition parties, accustomed to rejecting any official line as a matter of principle, have affirmed their support for the government on the issue.

Al-Wafd opposition party denounced the decision of the U.S. to withhold aid on account of the Ibrahim verdict as “blatant U.S. intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs.” The party’s liberal mouthpiece newspaper declared its “total solidarity with the government in confronting foreign pressure,” and said rejecting U.S. aid was “a national duty.”

Other newspapers accused Washington of “cowboy colonialism” and hypocrisy, pointing out the Bush administration’s own human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. base in Cuba where suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are being detained without trial. “September 11 events have changed U.S. priorities, as security now comes before freedom and human rights,” said Ibrahim Nafie, editor of the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper. “In the eyes of Arabs, Washington has drifted far from the model and become a third-world country, as it has prioritised security measures at the expense of values of freedom and human rights.”

The Saad Eddin Ibrahim verdict is only the latest in a string of indignities that have upset relations between the two countries. The Mubarak government is rumoured to be furious at Washington upstaging its efforts to end Sudan’s 19-year-old civil war.

In July, a U.S.-sponsored agreement reached in Machakos, Kenya, disregarded an earlier Egyptian-Libyan initiative and opened the door for secession of the south. It also revived Sudan’s claim to the mineral-rich Halayeb Triangle, a contested border area administered by Egypt. Over the past year, anti-American sentiment has grown over the Bush administration’s perceived bias in favour of Israel and its complicity in Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people. Egyptians have taken to the streets in protest, burning U.S. flags and vandalising American fastfood chains, and calling for the boycott of American products.

“The U.S. condones Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people. Therefore, we must reject anything American, even if it means hurting our own economy,” says Manal Khaled, a member of the People’s Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada (PCSPI), a local grassroots organisation attracting members from all political currents.

The growing rift between Egypt and the U.S. has manifested in the Mubarak government’s reluctance to support Washington in its efforts to topple Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The White House has described the proposed attack on Iraq as an important step in the war on terror, alleging that Iraq is working to build an arsenal of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

Egypt played a key role in garnering Arab support for the U.S.-led coalition to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991, but it is distancing itself from Washington this time round. “We cannot find in the U.N. charter anything that allows a country to interfere to topple other country’s regime,” Maher said during a press conference this week. “We should respect the U.N. Charter.”

Most Egyptians agree, and newspaper editorials have lambasted the U.S. for its “military adventurism.” Al-Akhbar columnist Eissa Morshid asserts: “International sympathy felt for the Americans after (September 11) has now turned into condemnation and rejection; condemnation of U.S. policies and rejection of the war drums being sounded day and night by Washington threatening even those who used to be close allies.”