US aid gives Egypt a green light for more oppression

The decision of US President Joe Biden’s administration to grant Egypt full military aid without any cuts raises questions about Washington’s commitment to human rights, given how much they are violated in the Arab world’s most populous country. The US State Department has decided to exempt Egypt from foreign aid conditions related to human rights and granted Cairo full military aid worth $1.3 billion for this year. It justified this on the basis of US national security interests.

Biden appears to have backtracked on his previous pledges not to give blank checks to his predecessor Donald Trump’s “favourite dictator”, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Egypt has been receiving US aid annually since the signing of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, to the total of $2.1bn, made up of $815 million in economic aid and the aforementioned $1.3bn in military aid. The total amount that Egypt has received since 1982 is around $80bn. This aid is offered in exchange for political and security commitments to Washington and Tel Aviv, and several strategic interests that often outweigh the importance of human rights.

Around $320m of this aid is subject to conditions that have caused part of it to be withheld over the past few years, due to widespread human rights violations and the increasing rate of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and death sentences against Al-Sisi’s political opponents. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress that he would suspend the approval condition of the amount of $225m, linked to Egypt’s record on human rights. He justified this by saying that Egypt has met the conditions and made clear and continuous progress regarding political prisoners.

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This is a first of its kind decision for the Biden administration, months before the end of his first and only term in office. It comes at a time when Al-Sisi’s regime is suffering from a stifling economic crisis, which forced it to devalue the local currency, sell government assets and resort to international financial institutions to borrow tens of billions of dollars.

An initial evaluation of the decision shows that the US is putting its own interests first, as Washington seeks to stop Israel’s war against the Palestinians and get a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The White House is counting on Al-Sisi to do two things. The first is exerting greater pressure on the Palestinian resistance, through closing the border tunnels, stopping smuggling and increasing security coordination with Israel. The second is helping to return the Israelis held as prisoners in Gaza, and ending the conflict between the occupation state and Hamas.

However, Egyptian political expert Mohamed Gomaa believes that the US decision came in the form of a reward for the services that the Sisi regime has provided in the Gaza war so far. Egypt is participating in the siege of the enclave and putting pressure on Hamas. It did not escalate matters with Israel when the latter occupied the Philadelphi Corridor along the border and destroyed the Rafah Border Crossing, despite this being a violation of the Camp David Accords under which military aid is disbursed.

This explains the US disregard for the human rights condition.

It is a means of blackmail and a sword hanging over the heads of oppressive regimes to fulfil Washington’s wishes.

The US enjoys secret and public security and military advantages provided by the Egyptians. These include the exchange of intelligence information, facilitating the passing of US ships and warships through the Suez Canal without delay, and coordination with the aim of securing American interests in the region, said Gomaa.

These developments can be interpreted within other contexts related to the complex situation in the region. It might be possible for Egypt to accept an Israeli presence in the Philadelphia Corridor, and perhaps play a future role in managing the Gaza Strip the day after the war, thus maintaining Cairo as a reliable strategic ally in light of the recent developments and confusion in the Middle East, especially with the escalation between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel. Moreover, the US wants to limit the Turkiye-Egypt rapprochement, which was recently topped by a visit by Al-Sisi to Ankara, and the signing of political, economic and military agreements and understandings between the two countries.

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As the US approves full aid, the Egyptian regime may see the move as a green light for more oppression against its opponents. This was hinted at by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who criticised the decision to bypass the usual aid conditions imposed by the US. “Egypt is still a highly oppressive authoritarian state,” said Murphy, “and I see no good reason to ignore this fact and waive these requirements.”

The controversial decision coincides with the Egyptian authorities’ efforts to pass amendments to the Criminal Procedures Law No. 150 of 1950. The amendments have drawn widespread criticism from the Journalists’ and Lawyers’ Syndicates and the Judges’ Club, in addition to human rights organisations. All see them as a legislative disaster that maintains the flaws of the current law and adds to them by legitimising illegal practices that violate the right to a fair trial, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.

The American move comes after weeks of arrests of Egyptian journalists and politicians, most notably cartoonist Ashraf Omar, journalist Khaled Mamdouh, journalist Yasser Abu Al-Ela and his wife, prominent politician Yehia Hussein Abdel Hadi, and former parliamentarian Ahmed Al-Tantawi.

Human Rights Watch has accused the US government of putting short-term political considerations above chronic concerns related to human rights in Egypt.

Washington, says HRW, is sending a message that these violations will be tolerated.

Moreover, human rights activists fear that the US decision will be exploited as a new cover for more oppressive practices against Egyptians, who are suffering from a deterioration in living and economic conditions and are facing more taxes and subsidy cuts.

Political researcher Amr Al-Masry told me that he wonders what breakthrough has been seen in the Egyptian human rights record for the Americans to grant full aid to Cairo. This development is devoid of any consideration about human rights, he said, and is governed primarily by pragmatism that puts US interests above everything else.

The current position contradicts the human rights report issued by the US State Department for the year 2023, which said that there were no major changes in the human rights situation in Egypt, noting the presence of large numbers of political prisoners and detainees. In 2022, the department’s report on the human rights situation included references to cases of enforced disappearance, torture, harsh prison conditions and arbitrary arrest and detention in Egypt.

Tens of thousands of Al-Sisi’s political opponents are in prison. They include doctors, lawyers, academics and former parliamentarians, all held on political charges. Hundreds of these detainees face new charges when their sentences end. It is an approach that has been followed since the military coup against the late President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

For more than two years, the Egyptian government has been sponsoring a national dialogue in the country and says that it has released hundreds of prisoners under presidential pardons. In line with the National Strategy for Human Rights, announced in September 2021, it claims that it is committed to promoting respect for all civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights.

However, the Centre for Middle East Democracy in Washington estimated that the number of prisoners released since last September stood at about 970, compared with at least 2,278 Egyptians who were arrested arbitrarily during the same period. The rest of the world can see what is still happening in Egypt. Why can’t Biden and his administration?

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.