A file photo of Mubarak and Bush

Additional Reporting By Alaa Abul Enein, IOL staff

CAIRO, April 12 (IslamOnline.net) – Egypt's ruling party reacted Monday, April 12, with outrage to calls for U.S. President George W. Bush to set a "firm and detailed timetable" to reforms before visiting President Hosni Mubarak.

The Washington Post published in its Monday, April 12, editorial that Bush should get tough on Mubarak, whom he would meet in his ranch later in the day, by linking over one billion dollars of aid to pace of reforms in Egypt.

"We are friends to the Americans, and New Conservatives in the Bush administration want to nip this relation in the bud," said Gihad Ouda, member of the National Democratic Party Policy Secretariat – led by Mubarak's younger son Gamal whom reports say is being groomed for power.

"The neo-cons dominate the Post, and that's that," Ouda said, warning that reforms could not be imposed given the unique circumstances in Egypt.

"Reforms should be gradually made, otherwise chaos would prevail," he said.

The Post said that Mubarak is the "largest obstacle" to the U.S. "Greater Middle East" initiative for reforms, a plan Washington released in February much to the consternation of the Arab world.

"In recent months, Mubarak has waged a vigorous campaign to block, dilute or co-opt the [American] administration's plan to promote political liberalization in the region this year," the paper said.

"He has denounced it as an outside imposition; claimed it can't happen before an Israeli-Palestinian settlement; argued that the only beneficiaries of democracy will be Islamic extremists; and insisted that in any case Egypt is already democratic and becoming more so all the time."

“Mubarak's repressive policies, "including unrelenting persecution of Islamic political movements, have helped fuel al-Qaeda" – the same group Washington blames for the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Qaeda top leadership has included a number of Egyptians, the paper added.

“He is "an unrepentant autocrat who has ruled his country under emergency law for 23 years."

Rewards

Against this backdrop, the report lamented that Washington's response came much as a reward – to the dismay of reformists back home- to Mubarak.

"It would be understandable for Mr. Bush and his aides to feel deep frustration with this sandbagging. Perhaps they do. Yet all the same, Mubarak is being rewarded with the honor of a visit today to the presidential ranch in Crawford, Tex., where Bush will once again embrace him as an ally in the war on terrorism," the paper said.

Mubarak is to meet Bush at his ranch for discussing what Egyptian officials said means to boost economic relations would run high on the table.

"No change or conditioning has been proposed for U.S. aid to Egypt, which this year will amount to more than $1.8 billion, including $1.3 billion in military assistance for the army that "props up Mubarak's regime," according to the American daily.

"Egypt has been at the center of that flawed policy. Since it signed a peace accord with Israel in 1979, the United States has showered the regime with some $50 billion in aid while asking for little outside a cooperative foreign policy," the paper said.

Mubarak's quasi-socialist economic system meanwhile has kept millions of Egyptians mired in desperate poverty, and his suppression of alternatives to his nationalist ideology has strengthened extremism, it added.

Bush said in November that "sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe".

But, the paper said, democracy would not be high on agenda.

"The most notable item for discussion between the two presidents will be Mubarak's favorite distraction, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict" – the Egyptian political establishment had called for settling before making the reforms.

Genuine Reforms

The Post called for Bush to insist that the Egyptian president stop obstructing political change in his own country and across the region.

"If he does not, the president will neatly repeat the error that he himself has repeatedly identified in past U.S. policy toward the Middle East and promised to correct".

"Mr. Bush can tell Mr. Mubarak -- not just privately but in public -- that he supports those Egyptians who call for lifting the country's emergency law and for reforming the constitution to allow for genuine democratic elections."

"Egyptian reformers don't say the change should happen immediately -- but they want a firm and detailed timetable. Mr. Bush should ask for one".