Okt 4, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
The newly
appointed chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has said he
supports blocking $235m in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns,
after his predecessor was indicted in a corruption scandal involving ties with
Egyptian intelligence officials.
Senator Ben Cardin on Tuesday said he told Secretary of State Antony Blinken that his hold on funds “will remain until specific human rights progress is made”.
“I believe
it is imperative that we continue to hold the government of Egypt, and all
governments, accountable for their human rights violations,” Cardin said in a
statement.
He said he
would withhold the military aid if Cairo “does not take concrete, meaningful
and sustainable steps to improve the human rights conditions in the country”.
The
Democratic senator specifically called for more pardons for some of the
estimated tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egypt, and providing more
space for the political opposition and civil society.
According
to The Freedom Initiative, a human rights organisation that advocates for
wrongfully detained persons in the Middle East, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi's government has released 1,716 people from prison since April 2022 -
when Sisi called for a national dialogue.
However, in
that same period, 4,590 people were arrested and 86 people died in detention
due to medical negligence by authorities.
This year
alone, Egyptian authorities released 627 people but arrested an additional
2,028 people.
Upholding
human rights in Egypt
Egypt is
one of the largest recipients of US military aid after it became the first Arab
state to normalise ties with Israel in 1980. It receives more than one billion
dollars in aid each year from the US.
The $235m
in military aid that Cardin is blocking is part of a $320m figure that Congress
had leveraged on human rights standards in Egypt. Blinken did not certify that
Cairo met the conditions but waived the restrictions on aid, citing US national
security interests.
The Biden
administration did, however, withhold $85m of aid that was linked specifically
to progress on releasing political prisoners.
The largest
chunk of aid, $980m, was not subject to such restrictions and will go ahead.
Still, the withholding of the $320m fulfills a call from several rights groups
who have been urging US Congress and the Biden administration to do more to
condemn rights abuses by the Sisi government.
"This
hold, and its support within Congress, loudly declares that US lawmakers will
not allow any foreign government - especially a supposed strategic partner of
the United States - to compromise the integrity of the country’s democratic
institutions", more than a dozen rights groups said in a statement ahead
of Cardin's announcement on Tuesday.
"And
it advances the shared interests of the Egyptian and American people to press
for the upholding of human rights in Egypt."
A number of
Democrats have been critical of aid to Egypt. However, Bob Menendez, the former
chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was recently indicted
on allegations that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in
exchange for exerting his influence to benefit Egypt.
Menendez
denied the charges and refused to resign from the US Senate, but stepped down
from his position as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Last month,
Senator Chris Murphy said that the failure to withhold the $235m was a
"missed opportunity to show the world that our commitment to advancing
human rights and democracy is more than a talking point".
"Over
the past year, President Sisi has continued his brutal campaign of repression
against political dissent and the free press," the senator said.
Middle East
Eye
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