TEHRAN,
August 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran condemned Saturday,
August 17, Washington’s decision to halt new aid to Egypt following an
Egyptian court ruling, calling it a blatant intervention in Cairo's
internal affairs, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.
Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi condemned Saturday the
"dictatorial" stance of the U.S. against Egypt, after an
Egyptian court convicted Saad Eddin Ibrahim - an Egyptian-American - on
charges of receiving money from the European Commission illegally to
supervise parliamentary elections and of libeling Egypt in a legal
report on relations between Muslims and Christian minority.
Asefi
said the United States has been turned into the world’s bully, trying
to dictate its will on other countries and force them to follow new
unethical procedures in a unilateral way unacceptable to the whole
world.
The
U.S. "is becoming more isolated, not only in the Muslim world, but
in other parts of the world as well, due to its repeated interference in
the internal affairs of other countries," Asefi added.
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher in an official statement on Thursday,
August 15, stressed that Cairo will not bow to Washington's pressures
and threats.
Maher
said Cairo would never interfere in the country's judiciary and any
pressure exerted by the U.S. in this respect would not be helpful.
Meanwhile
in Cairo, one of Egypt's leading opposition parties and its largest
Islamic movement condemned Saturday the U.S. decision to punish Egypt by
blocking all new aid after the court ruling.
The
opposition Wafd party and a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood both
decried the White House's decision as interference in Egypt's domestic
affairs.
The
two groups also suggested that Egypt would be better off without the two
billion dollars a year it already receives in civilian and military aid
from the United States, which is not affected by the cut-off.
"The
Wafd rejects this blatant U.S. intervention in Egypt's internal
affairs," the liberal-leaning party's mouthpiece newspaper said,
declaring its "total solidarity with the Egyptian government in
confronting any foreign pressure."
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Liberal
Wafd party’s president Noaman Gomaa declared "total
solidarity with the Egyptian government in confronting any
foreign pressure"
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Party
president Noaman Gomaa "called on President Hosni Mubarak to
consult with officials and financial experts to establish a program [so
that Egypt] could dispense with U.S. aid ... so that Egypt's will would
not be subjected to any foreign pressure," the paper said, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"We
are against any interference from any foreign authority in our own
policy, in our own business," Maamoun al-Hodeiby, spokesman for the
Muslim Brotherhood, told AFP.
"We
have always been sure that any aid from the United States is not in our
benefit. It is better that we do not depend on foreign aid.
"We
are not against the United States [doing something] for human rights,
but they are defending one person only, they are not defending human
rights," Hodeiby said.
The
Brotherhood condemned the United States for showing "double
standards" by not reacting when members of the banned pacifist
Islamic organization are arrested or tried before military courts.
U.S.
officials said Thursday that President George W. Bush had decided to
oppose new aid to Egypt to protest the seven-year jail sentence handed
down last month to Ibrahim.
Ibrahim,
a 63-year-old sociology professor at the American University in Cairo,
was jailed on many charges, including deliberately tarnishing his
country’s image abroad
