NGOs case brings tension to Egyptian-U.S. relations
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E-mail Xinhua, February 11, 2012
Egypt's probe into the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has brought tension to the Egyptian-U.S. relations, as the United States threats to stop its military and economic aid to Egypt, while the Egyptian authority snubs the threats.
Since Egypt decided to refer 43 civil society workers, including 19 Americans, to the court for charges of violating laws regulating the operation of NGOs, the tension has been escalating between the two countries.
Egyptian judges overseeing the investigation announced that the 43 people will stand trial for charges of violating license and foreign funding regulations, which could carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.
The U.S. government announced that the campaign against NGOs may affect the U.S. aid programs in Egypt. Meanwhile, U.S. Republican Senators John McCain and Kelly Ayotte warned Tuesday that the U.S. congressional support for Egypt, including financial assistance, would be in jeopardy.
"The current crisis with the Egyptian government has escalated to such a level that it now threatens our long-standing partnership," they said in a statement.
The United States offers more than 1 billion U.S. dollars of military and economic aids to Egypt every year.
According to Egyptian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga, NGOs operating in Egypt got about 60 million dollars of foreign assistance between 2006 and 2010, but the amount of aid rocketed to 175 million dollars from March to June in 2011.
"Egyptian government won't back off in its criminal investigation into financial aid. Egypt will not kneel down to anybody and will overcome the crisis through unity," Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri said Wednesday.
"The threats from the American side of ending the financial aids will anger the Egyptian side, specially after Egypt become more independent in operating its own international affairs after Mubarak's stepping down," said Ameen Hassan, head of the Egyptian Council for the Foreign Affairs and former ambassador to Washington.
However, Hassan expressed optimism that such dispute will end soon, as both countries are surely aware of the importance of their bilateral relationship.
"Washington realizes the importance of its relationship with Egypt, the leading country in the region, and Egypt also values its relations with America, the most powerful state in the world, so the importance attached by both sides will finally lead them to a necessary peace," Hassan said.
Egypt's former Deputy Foreign Minister Raouf Saad gave short shrift to the U.S. threat of cutting the financial aid, considering it meaningless to the Egyptian economy.
"Cutting the economic aid won't affect the Egyptian economy specially, because the economic aid doesn't surpass 250 million dollar a year, and that is a modest amount as the rest of funds go to other directions," Saad said.
Concerning the military aid, Saad noted that the military aid is more important to the United States than to Egypt.
"If America frozen its aid, Egypt will head to other sides. America is smart enough and will not allow these things to happen, " Saad said.
However, some analysts look at the dispute from another standpoint.
Gamal Zahran, a political studies professor of Port Said University, said that what happened between Egypt and the United States is a "matter of swap."
"What can be seen from the behind curtains is that America presses on the armed forces to leave the power, and the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) ejected the NGO card off to push the pressure away," Zahran said.
"The Egyptian authority tries to gain the sympathy of the Egyptians who are demanding them to leave power immediately, so they perform a patriotism show," he added.
"What can be proved is that the SCAF holds double standard as they don't probe the Islamic organizations and parties financed by Iran, Libya and Saudi Arabia," he added.
Zahran also said that such dispute is sort of tempest in a teapot, and both sides will soon meet around the negotiation table to compromise.
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