A US Congressional delegation's visit to Cairo rekindles the debate over a pending move to reduce military assistance to Egypt, Gamal Essam El-Din reports The recent decision to withhold $200 million of annual American military aid to Egypt has caused anger within Egyptian parliamentary circles. MPs are furious that the House of Representatives has made release of the funds conditional on Egypt reforming the judiciary, showing more respect for human rights and destroying weapon-smuggling networks to Gaza. They described the House's decision as an attack on friendly Egyptian-American relations, reflecting the influence of the Israeli lobby on the US Congress. Total US military aid to Egypt is $1.3 billion. A US Congressional delegation was in Cairo this week to discuss Egypt's concerns. The delegation included two Democratic House members, Betty McCollum (Minnesota) and Lincoln Davis (Tennessee). The delegation also included Bill Harper, Betty McCollum's chief of staff and A Brooke Bennett, counsel with the House's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The delegation met on 2 July with a group of MPs, headed by speaker Fathi Sorour and including Mustafa El-Feki, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Saad El-Gammal, chairman of the Arab Affairs Committee, Mahmoud Abaza, chairman of the liberal-oriented Wafd Party and Sami Mahran, the People's Assembly's chief of staff. Following the meeting, El-Feki told journalists the visit was part of a two-year parliamentary exchange programme. "It will include visits by Congress members to Egypt and vice versa, and we hope that it will create direct channels of communications and a greater understanding between parliamentarians in Egypt and the US." During a visit to Alexandria last month, US ambassador to Egypt Francis Ricciardone told Al-Ahram Weekly that speaker Sorour had "expressed a wish that the next period would see a growing number of exchange visits between Congress members and Egyptian parliamentarians in a bid to change increasing negative perceptions of Egypt and the US in the two parliaments". El-Feki said the meeting with Congress members had addressed American aid to Egypt. "We told them that Congress should view such assistance as a two-way street, conferring benefits on both sides. For Egyptian parliamentarians, US assistance amounts to more than money... it is a symbol of the strong alliance and strategy of mutual interests forged between the two countries after Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Egyptian MPs explained to the US delegation that such aid should not be turned into a tool for exerting pressure on the Egyptian people." A press statement released by speaker Sorour's office said the visiting delegation had expressed its appreciation of Egypt's alliance with the US. The statement cited Betty McCollum, head of the delegation, as saying that, "most Congress members are fully aware of the importance of Egypt's role at both regional and international levels and that the US and Egypt are in need for each other's friendship." McCollum's words, said the statement, followed Sorour's outlining of Cairo's pivotal role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and his review of recent developments in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. "The speaker explained how these countries have become involved in very complex problems and Egypt's role in maintaining stability and fighting terrorism," read the statement, adding that Sorour had also spoken about recent political reform and democratisation initiatives in Egypt "and urged Congress members to derive their information about political events in Egypt from reliable sources". On 1 July, the delegation met local media people, including the Weekly 's parliamentary correspondent, Nile TV's director of political programmes and presidential correspondent Nihal Saad, and Al-Ahram 's foreign relations correspondent Ezz Ibrahim. Commenting on the meeting, House member Davis said the Democratic Party's concern with human rights was not new. Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1970s, and Bill Clinton in the 1990s had both tried to make respect of human rights a cornerstone in shaping US foreign policy. He said that Congress fully respected the obligations that came with its friendship with Egypt and that no one was interested in underestimating the importance of bilateral ties.
