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The Egyptian people are suffering brutal repression by the authorities. The country has been under one of its worst human rights crises in many decades. Thousands of critics, journalists, peaceful activists, and human rights defenders have been imprisoned in dire conditions. Torture is commonplace.
Washington now finds this all perfectly acceptable.
The Biden administration officially sent a message of approval last week, when it announced its decision to waive all human rights conditions on military assistance to Egypt.
The US government currently gives Egypt US$1.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing. About a quarter of this, US$320 million, comes with human rights conditions the US Congress put in place. Egypt has to meet certain human rights benchmarks to receive this chunk of the money.
Washington makes an annual human rights assessment. It’s looking to see if the Egyptian government has shown “sustained and effective” steps to improve a range of rights and freedoms, such as protecting freedom of expression and association. Depending on the results of this assessment, the US can hold back up to US$225 million.
Another US$95 million is specifically tied to Egypt showing progress on releasing political prisoners.
For the past three years, the Biden administration has at least partially recognized the grim, no-progress reality in Egypt by withholding some of its military assistance based on human rights concerns.
This is the first year the entire conditional amount will be granted – ignoring the ongoing human rights crisis in Egypt. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waived human rights conditions in the “US national security interest,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The spokesperson claimed the decision was important to both “advancing regional peace” and in recognition of Egypt’s contributions to various US national security priorities, including “to finalize a ceasefire agreement for Gaza, bring the [Israeli] hostages home, and surge humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in need.”
Many will see these as worthy foreign policy goals, but it’s not at all clear why the suffering of Egyptians should be ignored in the diplomatic push to end Israel’s atrocity-ridden military campaignin Gaza.
And, in fact, Washington is making a similar mistake in both situations.
Sending the message that serious human rights abuses will be tolerated if it’s considered politically useful in the moment has proven counterproductive again and again. Telling military and security forces their crimes ultimately don’t matter, encourages them to commit more such crimes.
Egypt and Israel are the two largest recipients of US military aid, and this kind of unprincipled approach has only helped fuel additional abuses and atrocities by both governments.
