Biden administration condition portion of Egypt’s security aid to rights, civil society files

Around 10 percent of the US$1.3 billion that the United States pays to Egypt in security aid is to be conditioned on Cairo making changes in two rights files, US officials told the Washington Post on Monday night.

The US administration greenlit counterterrorism funding worth $170 million to Egypt on Monday, with an additional US$130 million conditional on the latter ending a protracted legal investigation of civil society organizations, known as Case 173, and dropping charges against or releasing 16 individuals the United States has identified and raised with Cairo since June, officials told the newspaper. 

Since July, several of the civil society figures who faced travel bans and asset freezes while their organizations were investigated in Case 173 have been questioned for the first time in the decade-long investigation, and charges and restrictions have been dropped against four organizations and five of their staff.

However, the amount being conditioned on improvements in the two specific files is less than was withheld under the government of President Joe Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, despite Biden stating before he won the presidency that he would issue “no more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator.’”

In December 2020, the disbursal of a $225 million tranche of the aid due to Egypt in 2021 was conditioned on Cairo undertaking measures to reinforce the rule of law, protect freedom of expression, and empower civil society organizations. In 2017, $95.7 million was withheld and a further $195 million delayed because of “Egypt’s failure to respect human rights and democratic norms.”

Under the new US administration of President Joe Biden, US Democrats urged for the entire September tranche of US$300 million to be withheld from Egypt, noting that Sisi has jailed tens of thousands of people on political grounds. 

In a press statement on Monday, Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy called the US administration’s decision a “half-hearted” implementation of the legislation that allows the US to withhold funding due to human rights concerns. “Continuing our security relationship with Egypt, with only minor changes, sends the wrong message,” said Murphy.

The US has paid military aid to Egypt since 1946, with the amount paid increasing significantly after Egypt and Israel reached a peace treaty in 1979. The amount is deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from which it is transferred to a trust fund at the Treasury Department and then used to procure weapons from US defense contractors.

Since 2014, US Congress has applied the Leahy Law to a portion of the aid money paid to Egypt. The law prohibits the payment of US security funds to a foreign security force when there is credible information that such a unit has committed a gross violation of human rights. However, the legislation grants the State Department the right to waive these conditions in the interests of US national security.

Since Biden assumed office, Egypt has been working to reassert its regional importance as a mediator between Israel and Palestine. An Egyptian diplomatic source told Mada Masr earlier this month that Egypt is pushing for a meeting between the leaders of Israel and Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly convenes later this month. Egypt also helped mediate a truce to bring to a close the 11-day battle in May during which hundreds of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into territory occupied by Israel while Israeli airstrikes ravaged Gaza, killing over 250 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians.