Makron in Cairo .. Between the contracts of arms and human rights

Among the reasons for political ethics and economic interests, the position of French President Emmanuel Macaron is hovering in Egypt today on criticizing Cairo for the reality of human rights in the country or keeping silent.

Two days before McCron went to Egypt, eight international human rights organizations held a press conference in Paris, in which participants called for a rethinking of relations with Cairo, particularly with regard to arms deals, and the development of human rights in Egypt at the head of Macaron talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Sisi.

The French presidency says the visit aims at strengthening what it described as the strategic partnership with Egypt, which it described as the necessary ally and stabilizer in the Middle East.

This international human rights conference is not the first of its kind to criticize the Egyptian authorities and their foreign allies over the violation of human rights in Egypt, preceded by dozens of conferences and reports of Egyptian and international rights. But in contrast, Sisi and his regime are showing off such criticisms, which he faces with a counter-attack through his media and supporters.

This raises the question of the feasibility and impact of such conferences and international human rights reports aimed at stopping the continuous and escalating violations against many Egyptian citizens, especially as the Egyptian regime does not change its policies and practices related to human rights.

Reputation system

"The recent European Human Rights Conference and other international conferences held to criticize the human rights situation in Egypt have negative effects on the regime, especially its reputation abroad," Middle East and North Africa coordinator for Front Line Defenders, Moataz al-Fajiri, said. Human rights may result in more crimes and violations committed by the regime. "

He points out in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the widespread criticism of the violations of the Sisi system may not show its impact soon, but the results become concrete in the medium and long term.

Al-Fujairi pointed out that there are already human rights pressures on the European Commission to set restrictions, conditions and controls on the funding provided to the Egyptian government.

For his part, the head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain, Mohamed Jamil, said that "international human rights reports under the frenzied attack of tyrannical regimes in the Arab region have an effective and important impact in exposing violations, especially as these regimes strive to keep their crimes secret and forgotten. In the erosion of Western regimes that protect dictatorships and support autocrats. "

Two days ago, Reuters published a report saying that when Macaron hosted the Egyptian president in Paris in October 2017, five months after he took office, he handed him a list of activists he believed Sisi could be released from prison.

Three sources familiar with the dialogue told Reuters Sisi looked at McCron and hinted at him as naïve. He went on to detail why not everyone was released, stressing their links to Islamists or the Muslim Brotherhood.

The French president, who views Sisi as a stabilizing force in the region and wants to strengthen trade and defense ties with Cairo, said at a subsequent news conference that he was not entitled to give a lecture on Egypt in the field of civil liberties.

French officials say that after 13 months, Macaron has been revising his approach, and he hopes to get more business and defense contracts without abandoning the human rights record.