Draft bill withholds meager sum while sanctioning $1.3 bln in military aid CAIRO: Egypt has refused new conditions attached to a military aid bill by the US House of Representatives, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo Tuesday after his US visit. Aboul Gheit said the newly stipulated conditions were a "step backwards in relations between the two countries. The House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations had granted $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, but withheld $200 million subject to three conditions: that Egypt must improve its human rights record, stop interfering in the judicial system, and tighten security on the Gaza border to prevent arms smuggling. Aboul Gheit said that both Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - whom he met on his visit - opposed the conditions in the bill, Mena news agency reported. "The US gives aid to see change implemented on the ground, so when things don't change they will ask why, military expert at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Mohammed Kadry Saeed told The Daily Star Egypt. "So if you insist on not changing, to stay as you are, yet still take the money then where are you going? If you won't change, then don't take the money, Saeed added. However, Saeed believes the foreign minister was correct to make his statement. "The US listener understands well that the statement [he made] was important for domestic affairs and Egyptian public opinion. The foreign minister is also right not to accept interference in Egypt's local affairs, Saeed said. He added "some people see it as interference, but I see it as cooperation. The bill, which was cleared by the House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations on June 22, also called on Egypt to upgrade and modernize its military. Saeed said "no other country besides Israel receives such military aid in the world, not even America's Nato allies. This indicates a special relationship. "The US has a view that Egypt needs to be different in terms of democracy and economy. America sees that it is better for Egypt to steer towards democracy, he added, likening US aid to Egypt to the Marshall plan for Europe after the end of the Second World War. Aboul Gheit has just returned from the US, where he had met with Cheney and Rice as well as National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. Additional meetings were held with the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Forces Committee and the Appropriations Committee which passed the bill. Prior to his July 8 US visit, Aboul Gheit had met American Ambassador to Egypt Francis Ricciardone on July 5 in Cairo to lay the groundwork for the visit. Talks were comprehensive in scope, covering bilateral, regional and international issues which concern both countries. Saeed said it was normal for any country to try and attach ideas to any aid they might offer. "When Egypt was a socialist country in the 1960s and gave aid to countries like Yemen, it also exercised its ideology through the aid it gave, he said. "And the truth is that it is not only the US that thinks we need to do more in these areas. There are now accepted international standards which rate the progress of any given country. Egypt is the second largest recipient of US aid in the world, after Israel. Every year, Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid in addition to around $800 million in other types of aid.
