Trump hosts Sisi in landmark visit, praises ‘fantastic job’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump put human rights controversies aside to warmly welcome Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the White House yesterday, the first such visit from an Egyptian president in almost a decade. Greeting Sisi in the Oval Office, Trump heaped praise on the former general’s leadership and embarked on a charm offensive designed to fix ties strained by revolution and security crackdowns.
“You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me,” Trump told Sisi, sweeping aside his predecessor’s concerns about democratic abuses in Egpyt. “I just want to let everybody know that we are very much behind President Al-Sisi, he has done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation,” Trump added. The meeting symbolizes an end to years in which the Egyptian leader had been kept at arm’s length by Washington amid rights concerns.
The last time an Egyptian president was at the White House was in 2010, when Hosni Mubarak attended Middle East peace talks alongside Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders. Within months Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising, which received tacit support from president Barack Obama. The Egypt-US relationship was strained further as a broadly Islamist and then a military government - led by Sisi - took charge.
The Obama administration froze military aid to Egypt after then-defense minister Sisi led the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, and a bloody crackdown on his supporters. Egypt’s key role as the most populous Arab nation meant that the aid was fully reinstated in 2015, but diplomatic relations remained difficult. The catalyst for Trump and Sisi’s friendship has been a common hardline against militant groups, which Sisi described as “a satanic ideology” during brief remarks at the White House.
While Trump noted the United States and Egypt “have a few things” they do not agree on, he made no public airing of US concerns about human rights in Egypt. Rights groups have called for the release of Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American who works with street children and was arrested in May 2014 on human trafficking charges. Hijazi has been held in custody for 33 months in violation of Egyptian law, which states that the maximum period for pretrial detention is 24 months. Human rights groups have estimated that Sisi’s government has detained at least 40,000 political prisoners.
A US official said Sisi would find a White House ready to soften US criticism of Egypt on human rights and to work on counter-terrorism but unwilling to provide additional aid. “He’s going to get an end to finger-wagging. We’re not giving him any more money,” said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity before Sisi’s meetings with Trump. “He’s going to be disappointed because he wants more assistance and he’s not going to get it,” the official added, saying it was not yet clear whether Egypt would escape a cut in its foreign aid as part of the Trump administration’s plan to cut the overall State Department budget by 28.7 percent. — Agencies