Foreign Ministry accuses Carter Center of lies, double standards

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry was “surprised” by the Carter Center’s announcement that it would close its Cairo office, a decision the ministry claimed was based on “false conclusions” and a political assessment that is neither “objective nor accurate,” the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Friday.

On late Wednesday, the Carter Center issued an official statement declaring the closure of its Cairo office. It also announced that the organization would not deploy an observation mission to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The environment in Egypt is “not conducive to genuine democratic elections and civic participation,” the statement alleged.

The center underscored the ongoing crackdown on dissidents, opposition groups, political activists and journalists, as well as restrictions to the rights of association, assembly and expression over the past year.

In response, the Foreign Ministry dismissed all of the Carter Center’s concerns.

“The fallacies, claims and contradictions issued by the center raises questions around its agenda, motivations and goals which are not in line with the atmosphere of stability to which the country is headed,” the statement said.

The Foreign Ministry claimed the center was adopting a “double standard” in its positions. It alleged that the group had notified the authorities that the Cairo office was closing for purely logistical reasons in an official memo issued on August 31.

In that memo, the center thanked the Egyptian authorities for their cooperation over the past three years, which helped facilitate its work in monitoring five constitutional referendums, the ministry claimed.

The Carter Center is currently reallocating funds to monitoring elections in other countries, and its decision to close its headquarters in Egypt has nothing to do with the country’s political situation, the ministry continued.

The government has no need to intervene in the affairs of any organization dedicated to monitoring Egypt’s elections, the ministry’s statement continued. It pointed out that this summer’s presidential elections saw an unprecedented participation from foreign monitors, especially from the European Union and the African Union.

The Carter Center chose to refrain from monitoring those elections, the ministry added, and only deployed a handful of experts.