Aid Halt Could Backfire on U.S. Peace Efforts: Senior Egyptian MP

CAIRO, Aug 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A U.S. decision to halt new aid to Egypt because of jail sentence handed down to an Egyptian-American human rights activist could hurt Washington's Middle East peace efforts, a senior Egyptian lawmaker warned Friday, August 16, 2002.

"Bilateral relations between the world's superpower and a pivotal country like Egypt, with its crucial role in the Middle East region, should by no means be determined by a court verdict," the head of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Mustafa al-Feqi, said in an interview published Friday.

"Raising the aid issue in (this) case will have negative effects on the United States," Feqi added in the interview with Paris-based Radio Monte Carlo published in the official Al-Gomhuriya newspaper.

He was mainly referring to Egypt's moderating influence on the Middle East conflict since it became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

The White House confirmed Thursday, August 15, 2002, that President George W. Bush opposed new aid to Egypt to protest the verdict against 63 year-old Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo, was sentenced on July 29 to seven years in jail following a retrial on charges that included tarnishing Egypt's image abroad.

Bush shifted policy on Egypt

The Bush decision "reflects an attempt by the United States to make remarks on the different regimes in the region, as part of an operation to rearrange the situation following September 11," Feqi charged.

"It will lead to a kind of provocation that we wish to avoid," he added.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher bluntly told Washington Thursday that Egypt did "not accept any pressure" from it.

"We do not interfere in the course of justice, and we asked everyone to accept the decisions of our judiciary," he said.

Egypt receives about two billion dollars a year in U.S. military and civilian aid, the second largest aid package granted to any country besides Israel.

The U.S. decision will not affect existing aid programs to Egypt, but will prevent Cairo from receiving a 150 million dollar package sought to alleviate losses in tourism revenue after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had been lobbying for the package, arguing tit-for-tat after the U.S. Congress voted recently to grant Israel 200 million dollars in anti-terrorism funds.

Washington's clash with Cairo on the Ibrahim comes as the two countries are increasingly at odds over Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Sudan.

Maher Thursday reiterated his country's fear that the U.S. brokered deal to end the 19-year-old civil war in Sudan could lead to a partition of that country, during talks, in Cairo, with U.S. envoy to Sudan John Danforth.

Egypt has not played any part in the deal and fears the creation of a new state will increase competition for the waters of the Nile as well as make it easier for Islamic parties to dominate northern Sudan.

Last week, the leading daily Al-Ahram said U.S. threats against Iraq are part of a wider conspiracy against the Arab world evidenced by U.S. support for Israel and its sponsorship of a peace deal in Sudan that Cairo views with suspicion.

Egypt played a key part in gathering Arab support to the U.S.-led coalition to oust Iraq from Kuwait in early 1991, but Mubarak has voiced opposition to the Bush administration's current design to end Saddam Hussein's rule.