Talks with Egypt’s new prez
CAIRO: US secretary of state John Kerry arrived in Cairo on Sunday for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over Egypt’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the threat which the conflict in Iraq poses to the Middle East.
Kerry is the highest-ranking US official to visit Egypt since Sisi, the former military leader who toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi after mass protests last year, won a May presidential election.
His visit comes a day after an Egyptian court confirmed death sentences against 183 members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, including its leader Mohamed Badie, in a mass trial on charges of violence in which one policeman was killed.
The United States has said it looks forward to working with Sisi’s government but also expressed concerns over widespread human rights abuses and limits on freedom of expression.
“We have serious concerns about the political environment,” said a senior State Department official who briefed reporters en route to Cairo.
Still, the official said there had been “a few flickering signs of positive movement” in recent weeks. Among these was the release of an Al-Jazeera journalist, steps to start addressing sexual violence against women and Sisi’s call during his first cabinet meeting for the revision of the human rights law.
The United States, which has counted on Egypt as a close Middle East ally for decades following its 1979 peace treaty with US ally Israel, froze some of the $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt following Morsi’s overthrow.
About $575 million in suspended funds have been released over the past 10 days and will be used to pay existing defence contracts, the State Department official said.
Washington has also said it will provide 10 Apache attack helicopters to help soldiers battling burgeoning militancy in the Sinai peninsula.
The Obama administration has made clear that the remaining funds, which require congressional approval, will be released once there is evidence that Sisi’s government is ruling in truly democratic fashion, the senior State Department official said. During his meeting in Egypt Kerry will press Sisi to release imprisoned journalists and will raise concerns about the mass trials and death sentences of Muslim Brotherhood supporters, the official said. (Agencies)
