Columns of Egyptian soldiers after the defense forces seized power from the Muslim Brotherhood government on July 3, 2013. The country is poised for further unrest., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Washington unlikely to cut financial aid to Egypt: US lawmakers
Reuters, Sunday 7 Jul 2013
While US law calls for suspension of aid to countries undergoing military-imposed removal of a democratic leader, US lawmakers are reluctant to do so
The United States is unlikely to pull its $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt any time soon, U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday, despite the Egyptian military takeover of the government in what the opposition has called a coup.
"We should continue to support the military, the one stabilizing force in Egypt that I think can temper down the political feuding," U.S. Representative Mike Rogers said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, called instead on Washington to "help a process that will allow for more multiple factions of parties and beliefs to participate."
Other lawmakers agreed Washington should use caution in responding to the turmoil in Egypt as it tries to transition to a democratic government.
While U.S. law calls for aid to be suspended if a country's military ousts a democratically elected leader, the U.S. lawmakers appeared reluctant to do so.
Egypt's powerful military ousted elected President Mohamed Mursi last week after massive street protests turned violent, blaming Mursi's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood for the clashes.
The Brotherhood, which called for additional protests on Sunday, has called Mursi's ouster a coup and pledged to keep protesting until he is restored.
"What we should be doing right now is urging calmness, and asking the Muslim Brotherhood to act with some degree of responsibility as it relates to what is happening," Senator Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, told "Fox News Sunday."
Neither Corker nor Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat, agreed with a recent statement by Republican colleague John McCain that the United States should suspend aid.
Corker said there would be "plenty of time to assess the aid issue" and the focus should be on the peaceful transition to a democratic government.
Reed said cutting off aid would do nothing to accelerate that process.
"We have to be very careful of suspending aid or cutting it off," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "What we have to do is insist that the military have a very rapid, very clear timeline and pathway to democratic elections."
That should not mean the Muslim Brotherhood be excluded from the process, said New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"Egypt for all includes in my mind participation from the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.
Egypt's ambassador to Washington, meanwhile, tried to convince vital U.S. ally and sponsor that the military takeover wasn't a coup but fulfilled the will of the people.
Speaking on ABC's "This week," Ambassador Mohamed Tawfik, rejected the idea that the overthrow of Mursi represented a coup.
"What has happened is that the people of Egypt have decided that President Mursi did not act, during his year in office, as president for all Egyptians," he said. "In the last two months you have had a massive, a massive reaction from the Egyptian people."
He said the focus now would be on holding new elections as soon as possible, but did not give a time frame.
The country's political transition has already stumbled as the choice of liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei as interim prime minister sparked objections from the Muslim Brotherhood.
"I'm not sure what the United States can do other than being a calming voice," Corker said.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/75961.aspx
Egypt army's Morsi ouster justified: Tony Blair
AFP, Sunday 7 Jul 2013
Former British PM says Egyptian army faced two choices in events leading up to Morsi's removal from power: 'intervention or chaos'
Egypt's army had no choice but to overthrow Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, former British prime minister Tony Blair said on Sunday.
Writing in the Observer newspaper, Blair, who acts as Middle East envoy for the United States, Russia, the EU and the UN, said the army's only alternative would have been to let Egypt descend into chaos.
"The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos," wrote Blair, who led Britain for a decade from 1997.
The army toppled Morsi from power last Wednesday following huge protests against his rule, but dozens of people have been killed in clashes in the wake of his departure.
Blair said the West had strong incentives to support Egypt's democratic transition.
"At its crudest, we can't afford for Egypt to collapse. So we should engage with the new de facto power," he wrote.
"In that way, we can also help shape a path back to the ballot box that is designed by and for Egyptians."
Likewise, Blair argued that Western nations have a responsibility to work towards peace in the wider Middle East.
"We feel it should be someone else's job to help sort it out. But it is our job," he wrote.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/75913.aspx
The US & Israel: What to do on Egypt?
Bassem Aly , Sunday 7 Jul 2013
The United States and its key regional ally Israel have seemed confused about the situation in Egypt following the removal of Mohamed Morsi. Why exactly?
Israel seemed comfortable with the first wave of Egypt's revolution in 2011, unlike the case with the 30 June protests that led to the ouster of now former president Mohamed Morsi.
The government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu avoided issuing any statements concerning the change in Cairo's governing regime. The United States, though commenting on the event, appeared to lack a well-built vision on Egypt, a state that became a strategic ally since the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
The question remains: How do both really perceive the second wave of revolt in Egypt?
Morsi leaves, Israeli confusion begins
On 30 June, millions of anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters took the streets of Egypt to call for early presidential elections.
The intransigence of Morsi and the Brotherhood's leadership led to a rise in the ceiling of demands, which reached the degree of calling for Morsi's removal from office.
On 3 July, Egypt's chief military commander, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, unveiled a "roadmap" for Egypt's political future proposed by the opposition, which included the ouster of Morsi to make way for snap presidential elections.
Members of the Israeli government stayed away from showing any signs of satisfaction or rejection on the political changes in Egypt.
Press reports said Netanyahu ordered his Cabinet to hold their silence on the crisis.
Zack Gold, a Washington-based analyst focusing on US-Egyptian relations, argued that the silence served to the advantage of the protesters to a great extent.
"If Israel praises or welcomes Morsi's ouster, such statements can be raised by the Brotherhood or other Morsi supporters as proof that the military and the Tamarod protestors were working for Israeli interests," Gold told Ahram Online.
Nevertheless, he asserted that Israeli leaders have been "of two minds" about Morsi and the Brotherhood.
"They accept as a fact the Brotherhood's long-term goal of Israel's destruction; in the short term, however, Morsi supported Israel's immediate security from the Gaza ceasefire to increased weapons-smuggling interdiction in Sinai," Gold noted.
Who to tame Hamas after Morsi?
Last November saw the renewal of military confrontations between Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Israeli troops that launched a series of destructive attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Buildings, media centres and different government facilities across Gaza, including premier Ismail Haniyeh's office, witnessed a series of airstrikes. These week-long airstrikes led to the death of more than 162 Palestinians.
Five Israelis were killed as a result of Hamas rockets fired into Israel.
Netanyahu's government saw Egypt's Islamist president as a potential friend, especially after the ouster of Mubarak, Israel's ex-"strategic treasure."
Morsi had succeeded in securing a truce between the sides after contacting various parties to the conflict, despite the fact that Washington had refused to pressure Israel in this regard.
Paul Sedra, a specialist of modern Egyptian history at Simon Fraser University, said that it is doubtful that Egypt's coming president will have much influence on the Hamas leadership "at all."
"As far as both the Americans and Israelis were concerned, one of Morsi's advantages was his close ties Hamas. He could apply pressure on Hamas in a way that no previous Egyptian ruler could, given the close MB-Hamas ties," Sedra emphasised.
On 21 November 2012, ex-Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire at a press conference in Cairo.
Ahmed Morsi, an Egyptian political researcher at the University of St Andrews, said that the security situation and continued communications with Egypt won't be affected by political changes.
"Whoever comes to power in Cairo will definitely not be interested in upsetting relations with Israel, at least in the short term," he added.
Obama in dilemma
US President Barack Obama and his administration is apparently concerned about the future of the political process in Egypt, an attitude that is reflected in contradicting statements.
Four hours after Morsi's removal, Obama stated he was "deeply concern" about the developments, calling on the Egyptian military to restore democratic, civilan government and ordering his administration to review US aid to Egypt.
The statement coincided with claims by the Brotherhood of a "military coup" against a "legitimate" elected president (Morsi).
Aaron Miller, an ex-advisor to US Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, told Ahram Online that it would be hard for Obama to balance between Egypt's different political forces.
He spoke about the army, Muslim Brotherhood and the "feloul" (remnants of Mubarak) in the state bureaucracy specifically.
"Whether we like it or not, the US had a commitment towards Morsi as a freely and fairly elected president. But Egypt's experience proved that an inclusive government, not only elections, is needed for a democracy to survive," he emphasised.
Obama, nonetheless, on Sunday said the US is "not aligned" with any political party or group in Egypt, adding that Washington is committed to the aspirations of Egyptians regarding "democracy, economic opportunity and dignity."
According to a White House statement, Obama "condemned the ongoing violence across Egypt and expressed concern over the continued political polarisation."
But Miller described the role of the military during the 30 June protests as a "military intervention."
"This action makes Egypt non-democratic; the military will not easily sacrifice its privileges in the coming period."
The ex-foreign official gave an example with the situation of the military in US society. "The US army is subordinate to the American people, full stop."
He concluded his statements by saying that the US military does not have any economic or political roles insofar as the situation goes in Egypt.
However, he revealed the fears of the US administration against the "infiltration" of Brotherhood elements into the army if Morsi had continued in power.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/75909.aspx
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