Egypt visit marks US policy shift
Will Trump hold al-Sisi to account?
WHEN President Donald Trump hosts Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi this week in Washington, they will have a packed agenda: the fight against terrorism; the Middle East’s multiple wars; the refugee crisis; and Egypt’s anaemic economy.
But what is unlikely, at least publicly, is any discussion of the plight of Aya Hijazi.
She’s an Egyptian-American humanitarian worker from Falls Church, Virginia, who has been incarcerated by the Egyptian regime for nearly three years, accused of abusing children she was seeking to help through her non-profit organisation. Those charges are widely viewed as false.
The administration of former US president Barack Obama could not pressure al-Sisi’s government to release Hijazi, despite Egypt receiving $1.3 billion (R17.6bn) in military aid annually. But Obama drew a line at inviting al-Sisi to the White House. Under al-Sisi, repression has been widespread. Egypt’s security forces have jailed tens of thousands and committed human rights abuses, including torture and forced disappearances of critics and opponents.
Now, Hijazi has become a symbol of the sharp shift in US policy by the Trump administration toward al-Sisi, placing security co-operation over human right concerns as the main barometer for engagement with authoritarian leaders.
At home, Egypt is battling an Islamic State affiliate in its northern Sinai Peninsula and exerts regional influence in numerous crises where the US is engaged, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen.
Al-Sisi’s visit comes days after the Trump administration agreed to resume arm sales to Bahrain, removing human rights conditions imposed by Obama.
Bahrain, which has brutally repressed activists and its Shia majority, is another vital US ally in the Middle East and home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
A White House statement on Friday made no mention of the al-Sisi government’s human rights record.
Trump, it said, “aims to reaffirm the deep and abiding US commitment to Egypt’s security, stability and prosperity”. And the statement described al-Sisi thus: “He’s called for reform and moderation of Islamic discourse, initiated courageous and historic economic reforms, and sought to re-establish Egypt’s regional leadership role.”
Al-Sisi’s visit to the White House – the first by an Egyptian head of state since 2009 – will be viewed by supporters as a vindication of his rule and could pave the way for more oppression of Egyptians, critics say. The Trump administration, they add, should have demanded that al-Sisi release Hijazi and commit to additional safeguards for civil society groups before extending him the invite.
“If Trump is committed to an ‘America first’ foreign policy… he should make sure Americans get out of prison,” said Sarah Margon, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. Granting al-Sisi a White House visit, she added, is “huge leverage”.
Both presidents George W Bush and Obama balanced a desire to advance human rights against the need to align with Egypt in the interests of national security.
Bush pressed President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted by the Arab Spring revolts in 2011, to implement democratic reforms.
Obama temporarily suspended the delivery of major weapons systems to Egypt after its security forces killed more than 800 protesters in Cairo in 2013.
Trump administration officials declined to say whether he would press his counterpart on human rights. The president’s approach “is to handle these types of sensitive issues in a private, more discreet way”, one official said. “And we believe it’s the most effective way to advance those issues to a favourable outcome,” the official added.