How has Egypt's foreign policy changed since Mubarak's ouster? Doaa El-Bey listens to the experts Post-revolution Egypt, said President Mohamed Mursi during his first interview to a local TV channel on Saturday -- a day before leaving for the US -- is seeking to build balanced relations with all nations based on mutual respect and interests. In the same vein, he stressed the need for Egypt to play a more prominent role in international affairs. Mursi's US visit followed anti-American protests in front of the US embassy in Cairo in response to a film trailer posted on YouTube denigrating the Prophet Mohamed, and US criticism directed at Cairo for failing to protect the embassy. Mursi was also criticised by the US because of what they said was his tardy reaction to the demonstrations. In what some say signals a shift in Egypt's foreign policy, Mursi's first trips abroad since his election were to Iran and China, the former is an enemy of Washington's and the latter hardly an ally. Mursi, say analysts, is far more obliged than his predecessor, president Hosni Mubarak, to take public opinion into account in determining foreign policy. That said, he has been criticised by some commentators for leaving foreign policy in the hands of members of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Reform and Development Party President Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat has expressed concern that foreign policy appears to be being set by the president's assistant for external affairs and international cooperation Essam Al-Haddad. Yet simultaneously, Mursi is facing criticism that he is too focussed on foreign affairs to the detriment of domestic challenges. During Egyptian Foreign Policy: Reality and the Future, a symposium held last week by Al-Siyasa Al-Dawliya, the political periodical published by Al-Ahram Establishment, participants agreed that in the absence of internal stability Egypt could not pursue a strong foreign policy. Amr Moussa, Mubarak's long serving foreign minister and subsequently secretary-general of the Arab League, went so far as to suggest that re-organising domestic priorities was one of the many challenges facing Egypt's post-revolution foreign policymakers. It is premature to talk about any substantial change in Egypt's foreign policy, said Moussa, given the complacency of the last three decades. He did, however, say there were positive indicators, not least Mursi's visits to Saudi, Iran and China. What was needed now, he argued, was a clear political direction, setting the foundations on which both the new republic and its foreign policy will rest. Mursi's Iran visit was the first by an Egyptian president since the 1979 Iranian revolution, a harbinger of Cairo's determination to deviate, when it feels it necessary, from Washington's line. By calling on Tehran to reconsider its support of the Syrian regime Mursi also used the visit to signal Cairo's intention to play a more robust regional role. Shura Council Committee for Arab and External Affairs member Saad Omara agreed with Moussa that in the absence of coherent internal policies foreign policy will remain unfocussed. Three decades of misrule, he said, had spawned a bureaucracy capable of thwarting any advances and left corruption entrenched throughout the state's administrative bodies. Without uprooting corruption, Omara argued, Egypt will be unable to formulate a strong foreign policy. Former head of the People's Assembly Committee for Arab Affairs Mohamed Al-Said Idris said Mubarak-era foreign policy had been characterised by Egypt's military and economic subordination. After the October 1973 war, argued Idris, a link was drawn between prosperity and peace. The reality, though, was that prosperity was conditioned by ever growing corruption and the peace illusory. What emerged was a regime of cronies who monopolised wealth and power. Any sound foreign policy, said Idris, must be based on a collective national project that accommodates Islamic, liberal, leftist and Nasserist political trends. Representatives of these leading political trends must be present across the government's administrative and decision making bodies -- including the diplomatic corps -- to ensure that foreign policy ceases to be monopolised by either the president or ruling party and instead embodies the will of the people. Idris also criticised the resort to IMF loans as compromising -- via the conditions they carry -- not only an independent foreign policy but national independence. Egypt is in the process of finalising a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF. Adel Suleiman, the head of the International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies, said Egypt's past relations with regional states had been consistent only in their confusion, citing Iran as an example: while Cairo does not have full diplomatic relations with Tehran there is, nevertheless, a charge d'affaires in Cairo. Then there are the Palestinians, dealings with whom have been distinguished by endless procrastination: the direction of policy, said Suleiman, was to postpone resolving any issues related to the Palestinians and avoid taking a clear stand. He called for far greater clarity when it comes to the Palestinian file. Egypt's relations with Israel are similarly unclear, vacillating between rejection of the peace accords and the belief that they are essential. He recommended that the peace treaty be revisited, particularly those provisions relating to security in Sinai. Cairo University professor of political science Hassan Nafaa highlighted the geostrategic factors that should govern Egypt's foreign policy -- Nile water and security on the north eastern border. The Mubarak regime repeatedly failed to address the Nile file, said Nafaa, and also failed to secure the north eastern border following the return of Sinai and despite its peace agreements with Israel. Future foreign policy, he argued, must be shaped by an awareness of pressing geostrategic factors and involve improved relations with African states and strenuous -- and transparent -- efforts to secure a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian question.
