West, hands off Egypt

LAST week, Egypt’s interim government was in grave danger of international isolation over its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. President Obama has refrained from calling the army’s ousting of Muhammad Mursi “a coup,” eliciting a mandatory cessation of annual US aid under American law. Instead, he has punished the Egyptian military by suspending delivery of four F-16s, canceled this year’s joint US-Egyptian military exercises and has announced that aid to Egypt is under review.
Obama is coming under heavy pressure from US lawmakers to do just that, including Senator John McCain who, together with Senator Lindsey Graham, recently strutted around Cairo like a feudal lord barking orders and hurling insults at the army and the cabinet, until he was politely sent packing. It was due to his arrogant posture that Egypt pulled up the drawbridge on foreign mediation/meddling.
Obama’s hands are somewhat tied because, in truth, withdrawing $1.5 billion in annual aid (military and civil) would hurt the US and its regional proxy Israel far more than it would Egypt whose transition to democracy is being generously bankrolled by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
US aid isn’t a gift, but rather a component of the Camp David peace agreement, which, if withdrawn, would be an abrogation of the peace treaty with the potential of triggering its severance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly concerned. He has “advised” the Israeli media to stand back from publishing opinions on the situation in Egypt, and, according to the Egyptian daily Masry el Youm, he is piling pressure on Obama to resist incendiary actions or statements that might push Defense Minister and Commander of the Armed Forces, Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to decide enough is enough.
There are reports that El-Sisi is currently refusing to take Obama’s calls while the interim Foreign Minister Nabil El-Fahmy has revealed that he has been talking to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. An article published in ITAR-TASS suggests Egypt’s ambassador to Moscow has asked Russia to support Cairo during these “extremely hard times… just as it used to do in the past.”
Moreover, US punitive steps against Cairo would alienate many of the wealthiest nations in Arab world that could have dire consequences for the American economy. Such moves would also risk the continuation of special fast-tracking privileges for its warships traversing the Suez Canal.
Further, military aid amounting to $1.3 billion is not transferred to Cairo’s coffers. On the contrary, the US holds it in escrow as a fund used by the Egyptian military to purchase warplanes, tanks, weapons and spare parts exclusively from America’s military-industrial complex that is a co-beneficiary of US aid to the most populated Arab nation.
Rather than choose between America’s so-called “values” (of course that’s a bad joke when we remember how many Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis have been killed by the US military) and US national interests, Obama is sending mixed messages that give him the appearance of being weak and indecisive. Within the US, he is being accused of reacting viscerally to events as they occur and of having no consistent Middle East policy. So, it seems he has tasked the EU to do his dirty work for him. The EU has suspended more than five billion euros in grants and loans and threatened to review its ties with the Egyptian state if it doesn’t fall into line.
Those Egyptians backing the roadmap, the vast majority, feel offended by Western condemnation and are angered by what they construe biased and selective reporting on the part of American and European journalists that have virtually ignored the Muslim Brotherhood’s torching and vandalizing of more than 36 Coptic, Catholic and Anglican churches, the slaughter of policemen whose bodies were mutilated and the bloody rampages of pro-Mursi supporters last weekend. Many wielding AK 47s went on a rampage in central Cairo last Friday, indiscriminately shooting civilians, throwing Molotov cocktails at private apartments hugging the May 15th Bridge, looting the Malawi Museum and incinerating the Arab Contractors’ high-rise building in Ramses Square.
Those violent attacks prompted state television and private channels to run banners that read: “Egypt fighting terrorism” while government ministers and ambassadors are engaged in a concerted P.R. exercise to get their side of the story out to the world. The Tamarod (Rebel) movement, whose 22 million signature petition sparked the human outpouring on June 30th, is in no mood to be conciliatory. It has launched a campaign that calls upon the government to reject US aid, cut ties with America and cancel Camp David.
Then just at the point when Egypt’s future on the world stage seemed bleak, along with its future economic prospects, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah saved the day with an unprecedented foreign policy message pledging the Kingdom’s full backing of Egypt’s fight against terrorism and extremism. “Let it be known to those who interfered in Egypt’s internal affairs that they themselves are fanning the fire of sedition and are promoting the terrorism which they call for fighting,” he warned.
The king’s wise words were swiftly echoed by the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Iraq. On Sunday, the day before a planned EU emergency meeting to discuss the EU-Egyptian relationship, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, met with the French President Francois Hollande, who has been one of the EU’s most vocal leaders agitating against Egypt’s interim government and military. Prince Saud told him that threats won’t achieve anything and while he sympathized with people’s right to protest, “in return protesters must not threaten the lives of other citizens, property, or turn to violence,” he said. President Hollande subsequently changed his tune agreeing to give the roadmap a chance.
Thanks to King Abdullah’s unambiguous position and loyalty toward the Egyptian people, he is being saluted as a true Arab, a savior. The older generation remembers with fondness the late King Faisal, who displayed his brotherhood toward Egyptians during Egypt’s war with Israel in 1973.
These may be some of the darkest days in Egypt’s long history, but ultimately they will pass. Egypt is poised to prosper and take its rightful place alongside Saudi Arabia at the forefront of the Arab nation. No background noises from Washington or Brussels will obscure this brave new Egypt’s forward path.

• Sierra12th@yahoo.co.uk