CAIRO: An article published Saturday by the state news agency MENA claiming that US Congress "is mulling a proposal. to offer $200 million in support to the Egyptian economy hinted at how uncertain the issue of United States assistance has become here as the 30th anniversary of the landmark financial pact between the two nations approaches. According to public records regarding the US Congress bill in question, S.3288, and the section titled "Near East Security and Stability, the $200 million figure refers to the minimum amount to be provided to Egypt for economic assistance in 2009 should the bill be approved - for the most part, business as usual for those involved with the nearly three-decade-old arrangement. But several factors make US aid an issue of heightened sensitivity this year. While it could be months before the debate is even underway, approval of $200 million in assistance would mark a $215 million decline from the $415 million in economic aid approved for the fiscal year 2008. The amount of military assistance requested was $1.3 billion, the same figure it has generally been since the program began in 1979, shortly after the Camp David Accords. In June 2007, the US House Appropriations Committee voted to withhold $100 million of military assistance to Egypt unless the state met three demands: curb human rights abuses among its police force, reform the judiciary, and eradicate weapons smuggling at the Gaza border. During an interview with the local paper Rose Al-Youssef earlier this year, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of meddling with Congressional priorities, citing the restrictions as a threat to US-Egyptian relations. But the measure proved toothless in the end. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice shelved the conditions in March, relying on a clause that allows the executive branch to waive certain measures in the interest of national security. Egypt has traditionally garnered a hefty chunk of US aid, and has generally received a larger share of it than any country but Israel - or, more recently, Iraq. The arrangement was initially meant to promote peace between Israel and Egypt, as well as keep the world's most populous Arab nation out of the Soviet sphere of influence. In recent years, some critics in both Egypt and the United States have called the arrangement outdated and bemoaned it as a hindrance to the two nations' interests. The recent conviction of Egyptian activist and professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim may further complicate matters. Sensitivities with Ibrahim have affected aid in the past, as in 2002, when US President George W. Bush cut short talk of a $130 million counterterrorism bonus to Egypt after the professor's arrest. Democratic and human rights reforms are a perpetual - if not always enforced - precondition to US assistance. Fiscal aid is generally provided during the US fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, though in recent years Congress has not approved foreign operations budgets until well after October. In the mean time, the state uses a system of "continuing resolutions, which allow groups to operate using the previous year's budget. Now, as Egypt and the US approach the 30-year mark of a deal that has long been the dominant insurance of comity between the two nations, the road appears less certain than it has in years.
