Congress rains on Sisi’s parade
Lawmakers don’t all share Trump’s fondness for the Egyptian strongman.
While Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received the red carpet treatment for his White House debut April 3, the mood was markedly cooler at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., introduced a bipartisan resolution along with four other members that takes the former military chief to task for his intolerance of dissent. The resolution notably puts Egypt on notice that US economic and military aid will remain tied to “progress on meaningful political reform, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
“The United States should support Egypt as it addresses security threats and economic growth. However, genuine reform and the opening of space for peaceful political dissent and civil society activity is integral to Egypt’s stability and security,” Cardin said in a statement. “We can’t stay silent, in Egypt or elsewhere, when crackdowns on the media, civil society and political opponents take place.”
Simultaneously, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel on the Middle East, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to raise the arrest of Egyptian-American Aya Hijazi with Sisi. Hijazi, the head of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that took care of street children, has been imprisoned since May 2014 amid a crackdown on civil society.
