United States President Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday called Egypt a “constructive” defense partner as it considers new military aid despite concerns on human rights.
Biden took office vowing no more “blank checks” to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi due to his sweeping crackdown on dissent, but is considering whether to release $300 million in military aid that was linked by Congress to human rights standards.
Questioned at a Senate hearing, US State Department and Pentagon officials said that Biden has made human rights a priority in talks with Egypt.
But we also believe and support that Egypt has legitimate security concerns and believe that security assistance to Egypt is a critical tool in supporting those needs,” said Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
“The current view of the administration is that Egypt is playing a constructive role when it comes to border security, Libya, GERD [the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam], obviously the conflict in Gaza, et cetera,” she said, pointing as well to US military overflights and Suez Canal transit.
Stroul also praised Egypt for agreeing to devote its own funds — not just part of its $1.3 billion in annual US security aid — to upgrade its Apache helicopters.
Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, helped broker a May ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between the Jewish state and Hamas, the Islamist terror group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
