For the first time, the Bush administration has pledged
to review U.S. military aid to Egypt.
Administration officials said President Georege W. Bush has told several leading Republicans
in the House and Senate that the White House would review U.S. military aid
to Egypt amid its continued violations of human rights. They said Bush said
the review would determine whether the administration could reduce
military assistance to Egypt without prompting a crisis in relations.
"The president is fed up and feels Egypt is a major obstacle to his
policy of introducing democracy in the Middle East," an official said.
The United States provides Egypt with $1.3 billion in annual military
aid, more than any other country with the exception of Israel, Middle East Newsline reported. Over the last
two years, the administration has quietly rejected several Egyptian attempts
to increase the aid level.
In late 2005, officials said, President Hosni Mubarak requested more
than $300 million in U.S. aid for Egyptian security coordination with the
Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. They said the administration has
shelved this request amid the breakdown of order in the Gaza Strip and the
refusal of PA forces to stop insurgency groups.
On Dec. 24, the Mubarak regime sentenced pro-U.S. dissident Ayman Nour
to five years of hard labor. The regime has ignored U.S. requests to release
or visit Nour, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2005.
Officials said the State Department has advised the White House not to
threaten U.S. military aid to Egypt. Instead, the department has recommended
linking free trade benefits to democratic reforms.
"We believe that these things are interlocked: democratic reforms, good
governance going hand in hand with the expansion of economic opportunities
and the expansion of trade," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
on Jan. 17.
As a result, the administration withdrew an invitation for an Egyptian
delegation to visit the United States in January for talks on a free trade
accord. So far, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been the only major Arab allies
of the United States not to benefit from tariff-free access to U.S. markets.
Officials said the review of U.S. military aid to Egypt would take
several months. They said the review would be affected by Cairo's record on
human rights, particularly whether Nour remains in prison.
"It is time to take a pause," a senior official told the New York Times.
