He witnessed a debate on human rights.. 4 files dominate the Egyptian-American strategic dialogue

Washington -

At the start of meetings with Egyptian officials, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that Egypt has a lot to do in the field of human rights, while Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry responded that human rights must be balanced with other considerations, stressing the importance of stability.

A month before President Joe Biden hosted the Summit of Democratic Countries, in which the White House did not invite Egypt to attend the summit, like the 108 invited countries, Washington DC witnessed the strategic dialogue sessions between the United States and Egypt, chaired by Blinken and Shukry, the first of its kind since 2015.

The US-Egypt strategic dialogue is the first since 2015 (Reuters)

Regional and global files

In his opening speech, Blinken touched on 4 files: regional security, global challenges such as climate and environment, combating the "Covid-19" virus, human rights issues, and fourthly and finally economic cooperation.Blinken referred to the depth and history of bilateral relations with Cairo, which the two parties will celebrate 100 years since While Blinken spoke about "President Biden's commitment to the issue of the centrality of human rights in US foreign policy, and welcomed the opportunity to discuss Egypt's goals in the field of human rights," Shoukry stressed the specificity of the human rights issue in Egypt, and that it is a gradual process that takes into account Egypt's cultural and social specificity. .

In his speech, Shoukry said that human rights are an "evolving process, and each country must take into account its social fabric, the reality in which it lives, and its religious and cultural background." He added that "the human rights strategy, which was based on a consultative process that took the input of stakeholders, led To end the state of emergency and work to establish a modern state that benefits citizens, and that the experience of the last ten years has demonstrated the importance of preserving state institutions and the social fabric, which is important and essential to fulfilling the aspirations of the Egyptian people to confront extremism.

Some commentators believe that Blinken's reference to the need to "make tangible and lasting progress in the field of human rights to strengthen our bilateral relations" is intended primarily to deliver a message to a limited number of members of Congress and human rights organizations concerned with human rights issues, indicating the administration's interest in freedom issues.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Seth Bender, an expert with the Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington, indicated that there is no meaning for "dialogue unless it includes time-bound commitments from the Egyptian government to improve its human rights record and effective accountability from the US government if the regime fails to fulfill those commitments. ".

traditional strategic dialogue

Al Jazeera Net spoke with one of the former senior Egyptian officials who participated in managing the files of Egyptian-American relations, and he confirmed such bilateral meetings between the two parties, "there were extensive discussion of regional and security issues, and the American side left the last 10 minutes of the meeting in order to remind its Egyptian counterparts of Washington's desire Seeing an end to emergency law, allowing international observers to supervise elections, and the need to respect human rights.

American interests in the Middle East are considered the secret word in Washington's vision of its relations with Cairo, and the state of instability and tension that hits the Egyptian neighboring countries stressed the importance of Egypt's remaining stable;

Whether in the civil war in Libya and the faltering of the political track, or the army’s control of the government in Sudan and the “coup” on the democratic transition process, or the crisis of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, up to the tensions in Ethiopia and the dangers of the fighting expanding to include the Horn of Africa.

For all of the above, one can understand the unique pattern of bilateral relations in which the Joe Biden administration ignores the absence of democracy and the continuation of human rights violations, while referring to them timidly, in return for its adherence to the importance of the principle of "stability" as one of its most important goals in Egypt.

Regional security files and global challenges such as climate, environment and combating the Corona virus dominated the dialogue sessions (Reuters)

$83 billion in aid to Egypt

And for reasons related to Egypt’s strategic importance in several ways, successive US administrations, whether Republican or Democratic, have maintained a fixed set of goals in their relations with Egypt, and in order to achieve this, they relied on a set of means and mechanisms, the most important of which is providing support to the ruling regime in Egypt as long as it supports it. of American policies.

A recent report by the Congressional Research Service, seen by Al Jazeera Net, indicates that the total value of US aid obtained by Egypt has reached $83 billion, of which $33 billion is economic aid, and $50 billion is military aid.

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has tried to balance some considerations in his approach to his country's relations with Cairo, while Biden praised Egyptian diplomacy and spoke twice with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the crisis of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Egypt, which has kept its peace treaty with Israel since 1979, is praised by US officials for increasing and strengthening its diplomatic relations with Israel under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

At the same time, the staff of the Biden administration indicate their dissatisfaction with the continuation of President Sisi's internal campaign of repression against his opponents, which was practically freezing the amount of 130 million dollars in aid provided to Egypt as a means of pressure to improve its human rights record.

The Biden administration, like other successive administrations, justifies the aid to Egypt as an investment in regional stability, by building extended relations and long-term cooperation with the Egyptian army.

For his part, Seth Pender noted, “The Egyptian regime does not see improvements in its human rights record as serving its interests. Therefore, the only way to push it to achieve improvements in the human rights issue where dialogue can be beneficial is to change the calculations of the Egyptian regime to be convinced that it is He will not have a good relationship with the United States unless he stops suppressing the political rights of the Egyptian people."

Seth Bender saw that Egypt's failure to invite the democracy conference is consistent with "not inviting most of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt was not invited to the top because it is an authoritarian regime where any real form of political opposition is prohibited, and anyone who dares to express their opposition to Sisi and his regime is violently suppressed." ".