, the US ambassador in Cairo, denies her country is playing a role in leadership transition in Egypt, reports Gamal Essam El-Din On 14 October, US Ambassador to Egypt held a stormy session with journalists from independent, opposition and national newspapers. During the meeting, Scobey answered questions about the sensitive issue of political succession and responded to allegations that the annual US State Department's reports about human rights and religious freedom in Egypt contain false information. Scobey insisted that Egypt's relationship with the US is on an upswing following US President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on 4 June and President Hosni Mubarak's trip to Washington last August, his first in five years. This thaw had, said Scobey, already resulted in last June's round of strategic dialogue which covered a wide range of bilateral issues. "The dialogue is an on-going process and a number of Egypt's Foreign Ministry officials will visit Washington to prepare for another round on other issues," said Scobey. Scobey strongly refuted claims that the US is playing any role in leadership transition in Egypt. "This is a 100 per cent Egyptian issue and it is entirely left to the Egyptian people to decide," insisted Scobey. She recalled that during his 4 June speech in Cairo, President Obama said that he rejected his predecessor's policy of coercion towards democracy. Scobey, however, argued that she is fully aware that "at the moment, there is much talk in Egypt about the issue of political succession." "A lot of Egyptians whom I meet always raise this issue and this is natural because people feel anxious about who is coming. What I want all to know is that the US does not have a certain candidate to recommend for the presidency in Egypt." Scobey believes that Egypt is undergoing a period of stability and this is good for economic development. She emphasised, however, that US commitment to democracy and human rights promotion in Egypt is steadfast. "The US is still committed to funding civil society NGOs which are especially involved in implementing human rights and democracy promotion programmes," Scobey said. "We also fund training programmes on the monitoring of elections." In 2008 the Bush administration allocated $54.8 million for democracy programmes, of which $27.85 million went to civil society programmes. According to a recent Washington Post report, this year's funding has shrunk to $20 million, of which just $5 million went to civil society groups. "The cuts were made by the Bush administration; for 2010, the Obama administration has allocated $25 million, an increase from this year's funding but still well below the 2008 figure," said the Washington Post. A US Embassy official says an additional $4 million in funding for civil society groups would come from other sources. On 13 October, two days ahead of her meeting with journalists, Scobey met with representatives of human rights organisations in Egypt, including Hafez Abu Seada, secretary- general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) and Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Freedoms. Sources said the meeting focussed on the role of NGOs in monitoring the 2010 parliamentary elections and 2011 presidential elections and on the proliferation of social and labour protests in recent years. NGO activists argue that a Supreme Administrative Court ruling in 2005 recognised the right of NGOs to monitor elections. Scobey, like most of her predecessors, has emerged as a focus of controversy. Despite her soft-spoken approach, since being appointed ambassador to Egypt in May 2008 she has been frequently attacked in the press. Ahmed El-Mosalmani, a television presenter on Dream satellite channel and Al-Ahram columnist, told Al-Ahram Weekly he "does not think it wrong that US ambassadors in Egypt hold regular meetings with journalists, democracy activists and MPs." "This is part of the job of diplomats and ambassadors everywhere. I am sure Egypt's ambassador in the US is equally keen to meet regularly with American politicians and media people." El-Mosalmani does, however, think it "wrong that Egyptian journalists and political activists go so far as to ask US ambassadors questions about the role of their country in leadership transition in Egypt." "These questions seek to turn US ambassadors into American high commissioners in Egypt," he argues. In her 14 October meeting with journalists, Scobey defended US State Department reports about human rights and religious freedoms in Egypt. "The information contained in these reports is the product of a continued dialogue with the government and NGOs," Scobey said. "These reports, in which we draw a complete picture of the situation of human rights in Egypt, are thoroughly revised and we have our own reliable sources that check that all the information is correct and accurate. Compare our reports with those annually issued by the government-affiliated National Council for Human Rights [NCHR] and you will discover that they contain the same kind of verified information and that both reach the same conclusions and recommendations such as the necessity of abrogating the state of emergency and promoting media and democratic freedoms." Scobey also rejected arguments that Washington lobbied against Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni becoming head of UNESCO. "I wonder what led Minister Hosni to believe that the US was against him," says Scobey. Hosni's failure to secure the UNESCO post led many Egyptian commentators to accuse the Obama administration of bias against Muslims. "Obama was welcomed when he came to Cairo on 4 June to ask for a new beginning with the Islamic world but after the UNESCO election people were shocked to find Obama's words have yet to match the deeds of his administration," says El-Mosalmani. Informed sources say Scobey met with Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit on 8 October in a bid to contain any negative repercussions from the UNESCO election results.
