CAIRO — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has canceled his annual
visit to the United States. Officials said Mubarak would not fly to the United States this spring.
Instead, the president would send Prime Minister Ahmed Nazief to present
Egypt in talks with the Bush administration. They did not rule out a Mubarak
visit to the United States in late 2005.
On May 18, Nazief was scheduled to meet President George Bush and senior
administration officials in Washington, Middle East Newsline reported. This was the first time that Mubarak
has canceled his annual trip to the United States and comes amid
unprecedented opposition to his rule.
During a May 12 news conference, Nazief said Mubarak was too busy to
make the trip to Washington. The prime minister did not elaborate.
Nazief also said the forthcoming presidential elections would represent
a referendum, rather than a genuine multi-party election. The United States,
repeately criticizing Egyptian human rights violations, has called for a
fair and free presidential election in September 2005.
The prime minister said Egypt would never allow the Muslim Brotherhood
to become a political party. He also said the government has not decided
whether to allow the deployment of international monitors during the
election.
Officials have expressed alarm over the quiet contacts being conducted
between the State Department and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has
spawned several groups regarded by the State Department as terrorist,
including the Palestinian Hamas.
Egypt has scheduled a May 25 referendum to approve a constitutional
amendment for multi-party presidential elections. Nazief said the government
intends to set election regulations before the parliamentary recess in June.
"It's obvious that the unjustified demonstrations have no program,"
Mubarak said in an interview with the Kuwaiti daily A-Siyassa over the
weekend. "They are staged just to create a state of unrest that drives out
the foreign investor. There are those who want to hurt our economy. But they
won't succeed."
So far, thousands of Egyptian judges have pledged to boycott the
elections unless they were granted independence in performing their duties.
Egyptian judges have served as election monitors and mediators.
Officials said Nazief would be authorized to discuss all of the issues
usually reserved for Mubarak during this week's visit to Washington. They
said this would include Egyptian security programs and U.S. military aid.
Egypt has been negotiating with the United States for the procurement of
up to 100 F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters. Egypt receives less than $1.3
billion in military aid amid calls within Congress to reduce the assistance
and convert it to economic help.
