The United States has assured Egypt that Washington's
nearly $2 billion in economic and military aid will not be revised over the
next year.
Officials said Egypt will continue to receive significant U.S. economic and
military aid as long as it maintains peaceful relations with Israel, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Egypt has been basically ignoring our interests in several parts of the
region, but particularly regarding Iraq," an official said. "The Egyptians
have allowed our naval vessels to pass through the Suez Canal and our air
force to use Egyptian air space. But our expectations of a country that
receives $2 billion a year in aid are far greater than that."
Nevertheless, the Bush administration does not plan to reduce U.S.
military aid to Egypt in an effort to ensure stability in the Middle East.
Officials said the Bush administration has relayed this message to Egypt
despite a State Department review of aid to Egypt and other Arab allies in the
Middle East. The review is meant to examine ways to use U.S. aid to bolster
democracy in Arab countries.
"We provide assistance to Egypt because it is in our strategic interest
to do so," State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said on Tuesday.
"We continue to have an important interest in a stable Egypt. We do have
various obligations, including assistance to Egypt, because it's in our
strategic interest to do that."
Officials acknowledge that several quarters of the administration have
become increasingly dismayed with Egypt. They said the State Department is
upset with what they term Egypt's worsening record on human rights while the
Defense Department has been unhappy with Cairo's refusal to support the U.S.
military buildup in the Persian Gulf in preparation for war against Iraq.
Officials said the State Department review of aid to Egypt and other
Arab countries will probably not be concluded until the middle of 2003. By
that time, they said, any war with Iraq will have been concluded and
Washington can examine its relations with Arab countries in the region.
"We are looking at ways that we can use our aid, which we think is
important and contributes to our interests, we can use that in the most
appropriate means," Reeker said. "Economic and military assistance is a very
broad category. And how, within that it is used and where it is directed is,
I think, what is being looked at, not the overall question relating to
Egypt."
Officials said the State Department review is the result of significant
pressure from Congress. They said a drive to reduce U.S. military aid to
Egypt by $100 million was suspended in exchange for an administration pledge
to review the issue for the fiscal 2004 foreign aid budget.
"There is a process underway with Egypt, and as a matter of fact with
Israel, on the transference of aid into different accounts that has been
ongoing for a number of years," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said on Monday. "All those things put together do not necessarily amount to
a reduction."
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry delegation will arrive in Washington during
the second half of December for talks on bilateral relations.
