US think tank pressures Obama govt to restore full aid to Egypt

The constitutional referendum scheduled to begin on Tuesday could be a landmark occasion for the United States to resume its full aid program to Egypt, argued a US-based think tank in a report released on Friday.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) — a think tank with strong ties to the leading pro-Israel lobby in the US, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — urged the US government to seize the opportunity to resume friendly relations with Egypt.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries became strained in the aftermath of the military’s ouster of Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi.

The think tank denounced aid cuts to Egypt, claiming these measures did not work in favor of US national interest. Advocates of cutting financial aid to Egypt have argued that aid should should be used as leverage to promote democracy in the troubled country, but WINEP believes that such policy simply "does not work.”

"Aid to Egypt is not a favor for democracy but an investment in a friendly government that supports vital US interests: Counter-terrorism, strategic access, peace with Israel, good relations with the key oil-producing Arab states. Instead, today we once again witness the absurd spectacle of the US trying to put pressure only on its friends, but not on its enemies, to reform their internal political systems," the report said, referring to Washington's recent attempts at political rapprochement with Iran and Syria, which the report describes as "two long-time brutal, dictatorial, enemy regimes.”

The WINEP report went on to condemn the arguments of those advocating for military and economic aid cuts to Egypt, arguing that better relations with Egypt would eventually send signals to other allies in the region that Washington would "still stick with its friends."

Gulf nations are becoming increasingly nervous about a possible US-Iran rapprochement, the report warned.

But a rapprochement with Tehran and Damascus should provide an opportunity for the United States to strengthen, not weaken, its relationship with Egypt, the report suggested, adding that Washington's insistence that Egypt include the Brotherhood in the political sphere could eventually unsettle the "geo-political environment in the Middle East.”

"The suspension of aid was welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood, and indirectly encourages it to remain defiant. The jihadists and terrorists in Sinai, who have assassinated and committed dozens of terrorist attacks against Egyptian soldiers, welcome any decision by [US President Barack] Obama that weakens or pressures the Egyptian Armed Forces, their sole enemy at the moment," the report claimed.

In addition, WINEP argued that using aid to pressure for more democratic reform in order to create long-term stability in Egypt is not working.

"Wavering support for Egypt's government is actually more likely to encourage its mortal opponents to wage jihad against it — thereby escalating violence and condemning 90 million Egyptians to longer suffering. So the advocates of pressure for democracy would end up provoking the very instability they claim to abjure," the report alleged.

For WINEP, ensuring a political future for the deposed Muslim Brotherhood should not be a priority for the US administration, simply because it is not in the interest of the US.

Moreover, WINEP described US-Egypt military cooperations as the cornerstone of the two country's future political rapprochement, and slammed the Obama administration’s current policy on Egypt, warning that it puts this cooperation in jeopardy.

"Washington's deep-rooted strategic security relationship with the strongest Arab army has played a major role in its war against Al-Qaeda and counterterrorism operations, and in regional energy and geopolitical security," the report insisted.

WINEP urged the Obama administration to strengthen its relationship with Egypt's government, if it is keen on preserving its new relationships with Iran and Syria.

"This internal tension ought to be resolved quickly, guided by the clear strategic interests of the United States. Given President Obama's own new, narrower definition of those core interests in his UNGA [United Nations General Assembly] address a few months ago, his administration (and its allies in Congress) need no longer even pretend that Egypt is fully democratic," WINEP argued.