An unexpected meeting between US Ambassador David Welch and Tagammu Party leader Rifaat El-Said sparked tension in the opposition's ranks, reports Gamal Essam El-Din If there is a basic rule about Egyptian opposition parties, it is that they differ just as quickly as they unite. That seemed especially true last week: no sooner had several opposition parties forged an alliance -- in preparation for a national dialogue with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) -- than they found themselves involved in a new round of internal squabbling. The catalyst? An unexpected visit by US ambassador to Egypt David Welch to Rifaat El-Said, chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party, and spokesman of the new opposition bloc, which includes eight opposition parties. According to Tagammu Party Secretary-General Hussein Abdel- Razeq, last Thursday Welch requested a meeting with El-Said in his capacity as spokesman of the so- called "opposition alliance for reform". The two-hour meeting, Abdel- Razeq said, "was not just the Tagammu Party's business. It mainly dealt with opposition issues." Other opposition circles, and especially the Nasserist Party, were furious about the meeting. Nasserist leader Diaaeddin Dawoud said his party strongly condemned El-Said's decision to sit and speak with Welch on behalf of the opposition alliance. "This meeting would have been all right if it had only concerned the Tagammu Party," Dawoud said. He questioned, however, El-Said's decision to agree to the meeting on behalf of the opposition alliance, considering "Welch's tendency to always act like a new High Commissioner in Egypt," and in light of his being "the ambassador of a country whose soldiers are killing Iraqis". According to Dawoud, "El-Said's meeting with Welch has definitely tarnished the opposition's image." Nasserist Party Secretary-General Ahmed Hassan even threatened to withdraw from the alliance, and condemned El-Said for choosing not to inform the bloc before agreeing to the meeting with Welch. Even the NDP was upset. Its Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif told the independent Al-Osbou newspaper that it was unacceptable that coordination among local opposition parties become coordination with "external forces". El-Sherif described El-Said's meeting with Welch as being "dangerous and negative, not only for partisan life, but also for the parties in the opposition alliance". The NDP secretary-general said that Welch should not act like a high commissioner. "He is just a representative of a foreign country, and must not exceed that limit." Some informed sources suggested that El-Said had used Welch as an American tool to step up pressure on the NDP. "The message El-Said aimed to send through this meeting," an informed Tagammu Party source told Al-Ahram Weekly, "was simple and clear: the opposition will resort to the US to embarrass the NDP, if the latter continues to adamantly reject radical constitutional and political reforms." El-Said, meanwhile, declined to provide details about the meeting, Abdel-Razeq said, "because he preferred to wait until he met members of the opposition alliance on Tuesday." Abdel-Razeq told the Weekly that "it was important that Welch, as the representative of the United States in Egypt, get a clear idea of the opposition's reactions -- which form a basic part of Egyptian public opinion -- towards his country." At the Tuesday meeting, which took place at Wafd Party headquarters, El-Said told his opposition colleagues that he had "met Welch in the name of the alliance, and I told him what he had to hear. I told him our view of their crimes in Falluja and Abu Ghraib, and their unlimited support for Sharon." Welch was not "daring enough to discuss domestic matters with me," El-Said said, "but had he, I would have told him unpleasant things." The alliance ended up agreeing to coordinate with each other in advance of making contacts with any foreign diplomats; they also renewed their trust in El-Said as their spokesman. In an interview with the Weekly, the US ambassador said he "calls on representatives of the various political parties in Egypt frequently... you can check with the NDP and the Wafd Party, and they will tell you that I meet openly with them as well." Welch also met Ayman Nour, chairman of the newly founded Al- Ghad Party, on Tuesday at the US ambassador's residence. "I, in fact, have a long history of contacting people in their offices and homes, and plan to continue to do so," Welch said. "These visits provide me with an excellent opportunity to listen and to exchange views. Moreover, I am received with great hospitality during these visits. My visit to Rifaat El-Said," the ambassador said, "was therefore nothing unusual, nor was it the first of its kind." In advance of his own meeting with El-Said at the Shura Council on Sunday, the NDP's El-Sherif said, "the opposition must not flex its muscles by resorting to foreign forces, because the NDP is quite open to any kind of national dialogue, and there are no red lines constraining it." He warned the opposition alliance, however, against trying to impose a certain agenda on the dialogue in advance. "Besides," El-Sherif told Al- Osbou, "the number of parties [eight] in this alliance is small. Egypt now has 18 opposition parties, plus the NDP." On Tuesday, El-Said said the agenda for the national dialogue had finally been set. For one thing, it would be between the NDP and the alliance as a whole, rather on an individual party basis. "The dialogue will also be divided into three committees on political reform, economic reform, and social issues," he said. The political reform dialogue will include debates on amendments to four laws regulating political rights, parties, the People's Assembly, and professional syndicates. The opposition alliance's ambitious "21 September" agenda for political reform would also be included in the dialogue, El-Said said. Scheduled for the first week of January, the dialogue will be held in public, at the Shura Council, and covered extensively by the media.
