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DRY-RUN Noteworthy News: Egypt (July 19, 2017)
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Some Former Sisi Allies Turn Critics as Egypt Election Nears
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Amina Ismail
Some of the people who helped propel Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power are calling for his replacement in an election next year, a sign of a shift in the still widespread view that he is a force for stability. -
Egyptian Security Forces Kill Prominent Islamic State Militant in North Sinai
Jul 18, 2017 | Reuters
By Haitham Ahmed
Egyptian security forces killed a prominent Islamic State militant on Tuesday suspected of being involved in recent attacks in North Sinai, an Interior Ministry statement said. -
Egypt’s President Names Top Judge, Risks Backlash
Jul 19, 2017 | Associated Press (In The Washington Post)
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi overruled a powerful branch of the judiciary by appointing its new leader on Wednesday, risking a backlash from the judges, who had nominated another candidate. -
Uighur Activists Say Detained Students Moved to Cairo Prison
Jul 19, 2017 | Associated Press (In the New York Times)
Activists from China's Uighur community say scores of students from the ethnic minority detained by police in Egypt are being moved to a massive prison complex in Cairo for interrogation by Chinese officials. -
Qatar’s Critics Scale Back Demands in Diplomatic Bid
Jul 19, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Farnaz Fassihi
...UAE’s minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy said the ball was now in Qatar’s court and Egypt’s deputy ambassador to the U.N. said Qatar had a false perception of its regional status and power. -
Yields Fall on Egypt's Six-Month, One-Year T-Bills; Foreign Demand High
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Eric Knecht
The average yields on Egypt's six-month and one-year treasury bills fell in an auction on Wednesday, data from the central bank showed, amid high foreign participation. -
Egypt Agricultural Exports Up 12.1 Pct in First Half 2017
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Eric Knecht
Egypt's agricultural exports rose 12.1 percent during the first half of 2017, reaching 3.5 million tonnes compared to 3.1 million last year, agriculture ministry spokesman Hamid Abdel Dayim said on Wednesday. -
Gulf Business Counts Cost of Arab states’ Qatar Embargo
Jul 19, 2017 | Financial Times
By Simeon Kerr
...From construction companies to financial consultancies, the private sector has been left reeling by the move from the quartet of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to abandon quiet diplomacy in favour of harsh measures that seek to bend Doha to their will. -
Trump Administration Should Withhold Aid to Rein in Egypt's Sisi
Jul 19, 2017 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Brian Dooley
...Censuring Sisi in this way is long overdue. If the Trump administration wants to encourage its erratic ally away from repression and toward more stable politics, it should withhold the aid. -
Egypt Keen on Protecting Qatari Investments
Jul 18, 2017 | Al-Monitor
By George Mikhail
The breakdown in relations between Qatar and Egypt isn't expected to affect investments between the countries, according to Egyptian officials and some economic experts.
General News
Economic and Business News
Opinion & Analysis
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Some Former Sisi Allies Turn Critics as Egypt Election Nears
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Amina Ismail
Some of the people who helped propel Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power are calling for his replacement in an election next year, a sign of a shift in the still widespread view that he is a force for stability.
Although the former military commander has yet to declare he will run in the June election, only two people have aired the idea of challenging him and even they say Sisi is likely to win, aided by a crackdown on his opponents that is gathering pace.
But the criticism in recent months from several of Sisi's staunchest former allies of his handling of the economy, security and a territorial dispute is striking in a country where fear of turmoil is another factor stifling dissent.
"He must go," Hazim Abdelazim, a leading figure in Sisi's official 2014 presidential campaign, told Reuters. "He wasn't honest. He didn't respect the law or constitution. He has drowned the country in debt, and he had given up (our) land."
The presidency did not respond to a request for comment. Sisi's allies have dismissed accusations of rights abuses, saying his measures are needed for security in the face of an Islamist insurgency. Sisi says his government is working to put the economy back on track.
His decision last year to hand two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, which showered Egypt with billions of dollars of aid, was seen by many Egyptians as an affront to national sovereignty. The plan prompted rare protests and has since become mired in legal challenges.
Closer to home, the population is struggling with rampant inflation and persistent and deadly Islamist attacks which the government says justifies its jailing of political opponents and activists and closing of critical media.
In 2014, a year after he seized power during mass protests against Egypt's first freely elected president, Islamist Mohammed Mursi, Sisi won an election by a landslide, promising economic growth, stability and a crackdown on militants.
Most of Egypt's 92 million people are still wary of challenging the status quo after living through a pro-democracy revolt, a military takeover and a prolonged state of emergency.
Under Sisi's presidency, thousands of dissidents have been jailed, the government has shut down independent media and heavily restricted the conducting of polls.
A month after the pro-government Egyptian Center for Public Research, Baseera, said it had found a 14 percent drop in Sisi's popularity last year, the government warned citizens against participating in polls.Islands Isolation
Abdelazim said he lost trust in Sisi gradually because of his failed economic promises and repressive policies which he says are worse than under former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
But he said it was the decision to transfer the islands to Saudi Arabia that prompted him to denounce Sisi on Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based broadcaster critics call a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood, which Sisi's government replaced.
"I was fuming ... We are talking about losing land," said Abdelazim, who used to chair the youth committee in Sisi's campaign. "I have reservations against Al Jazeera, but Sisi didn't leave us even a pinhole to breathe through. I want people to listen. Where else will I speak?"
Nour al-Huda Zaki, a popular writer who was once one of the leading figures in Sisi's campaign, said the idea Egypt would lose the islands was like a slap in the face. "I felt that there was an insult to the oath that the president swore."
During the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power following Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring uprising, Mursi's government faced protests amid power cuts, fuel shortages and resistance from state institutions.
When Sisi, who is now 62, took office in 2013, a broad cross-section of the public admired the general in dark sunglasses with his eloquent speeches and promises of stability. Shops sold out of cakes decorated with his face.
Now, the challenges are mounting. Egypt is fighting an Islamic State insurgency in North Sinai that gained pace in 2013, killing hundreds of security forces. The group has turned its guns on Christians in the mainland, who were of the most vocal supporters of Sisi, killing around 100 since December.
Rights groups say security has been used as an excuse for a growing government push to muzzle critics. Since May 24, the government has blocked at least 122 news websites, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, a non-government organization tracking impacted websites.
The cost of living for most Egyptians has soared after years of political upheaval as well as a devaluation of the Egyptian pound, tax rises and subsidy cuts introduced by Sisi's government as part of an IMF loan deal.
Zaki was once a leading volunteer in Sisi's campaign. She traveled to most of Egypt provinces and promoted him on talk shows and at rallies, waving an Egyptian flag and chanting "God is great, Sisi is coming" as hundreds chanted back.
Now she sees Sisi as no different than Mubarak, who she protested against in the 2011 uprising. "The regime that we revolted against in January 2011, has returned," she said. "This regime's repressive tools are worse than Mubarak's."Alternatives?
Growing discontent does not necessarily mean a leadership change. The nephew of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat, once an erstwhile Sisi supporter himself, says he is considering a run but knows he will not win.
Running for the presidency would give him a chance to air grievances, he told Reuters. "There is no other way but to ... stand amongst them to be able to talk and disagree."
Khaled Ali, 45, chief lawyer defending the case for keeping the islands and a former presidential candidate told Reuters in May that he is considering running against Sisi. But he is waiting to find out if he will go to prison.
The human rights and labor lawyer went on trial last month on public indecency charges, which he denies, punishable by up to two years in prison. If convicted he will be barred from running, even if he is only fined.
Some analysts say the change of heart by Sisi's erstwhile allies points to wider disillusionment, but see limited impact on Egypt's stability, a major concern to the United States and allies struggling to contain conflict in Syria, Yemen and Libya.
"A lack of popularity will always have some effect on stability," said Timothy Kaldas, non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. "But Mubarak was unpopular for well over a decade and stayed in power with little meaningful challenge until 2011."
(This story has been corrected to remove reference to Baseera as state-owned in paragraph 10-11)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-politics-idUSKBN1A40ZQ
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Egyptian Security Forces Kill Prominent Islamic State Militant in North Sinai
Jul 18, 2017 | Reuters
By Haitham Ahmed
Egyptian security forces killed a prominent Islamic State militant on Tuesday suspected of being involved in recent attacks in North Sinai, an Interior Ministry statement said.
Egypt faces an Islamist insurgency led by the Islamic State group in the Sinai Peninsula, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since 2013.
The statement said security forces conducted a raid on a building under construction in Arish, a city in North Sinai, where militants had set up a base of operations.
An ensuing firefight led to the death of one of the group's leaders, Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Al-Nashu, who is known as Ghandur Al-Masri, and the escape of another, the statement said.
It said Masri was responsible for carrying out several operations and recruiting new members for Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based group which pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014.
The Interior Ministry said earlier in the day that police had killed two prominent members of the Hasm Movement, which has claimed several attacks in Cairo over the past year, during a firefight in a suburb on the outskirts of the capital.
Egypt this month saw one of the worst attacks on its security forces in years when 23 soldiers were killed after two suicide car bombs were detonated in North Sinai.
Reporting by Haitham Ahmed; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Hugh Lawson
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-security-idUSKBN1A326K
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Egypt’s President Names Top Judge, Risks Backlash
Jul 19, 2017 | Associated Press (In The Washington Post)
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi overruled a powerful branch of the judiciary by appointing its new leader on Wednesday, risking a backlash from the judges, who had nominated another candidate.
El-Sissi named Ahmed Abul-Azm as head of the State Council, which rules on disputes between the government and citizens. The appointment ignores the choice of council judges who, in violation of a widely disputed law, voted overwhelmingly in May to nominate Yahya Dakroury, their most senior justice, for the job.
Dakroury gained nationwide fame last year when he ruled to annul an April 2016 agreement to surrender two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. El-Sissi’s government insists the islands have always been Saudi, but were placed under Egypt’s protection amid rising Arab-Israeli tensions in the early 1950s.
El-Sissi has argued in support of the islands’ Saudi ownership, a stand that many Egyptians find vexing given that one of the two islands, Tiran, has a strong strategic value. It controls a narrow shipping lane leading north to the port cities of Eilat and Aqaba, in Israel and Jordan respectively.
Parliament hurriedly debated and approved the agreement last month in a series of charged and chaotic sessions, and el-Sissi ratified it, slamming shut an issue that sparked the largest anti-government protests since he took office in June 2014.
Critics say the surrender of the islands amounts to a pay-off to the Saudis, who have provided billions of dollars in aid to help prop up Egypt’s economy.
A new law enacted in April allows the president to select the leader of each branch of the judiciary from three names submitted by its members. Previously, each branch had nominated its most senior member, and presidential approval was mainly a formality.
The State Council, signaling its opposition to the law, only nominated Dakroury.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/egypts-president-names-top-judge-risks-backlash/2017/07/19/0e886058-6c9c-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html?utm_term=.e5a98e5668c7
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Uighur Activists Say Detained Students Moved to Cairo Prison
Jul 19, 2017 | Associated Press (In the New York Times)
Activists from China's Uighur community say scores of students from the ethnic minority detained by police in Egypt are being moved to a massive prison complex in Cairo for interrogation by Chinese officials.
Activist Abduweli Ayup says Wednesday some 120 students have been detained this month, with at least 80 still held by Egyptian authorities. Others put the figure near 200.
In a statement, Uighur students say friends inside the notorious Tora prison tell them police are collecting students that had been detained elsewhere and bringing them there.
The broad sweep in Cairo included raids at restaurants, apartments and a supermarket.
Chinese authorities have been waging a wide-scale security crackdown in the Uighur homeland in the western Xinjiang province, which officials say is necessary to curb Islamic extremism.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/07/19/world/middleeast/ap-ml-egypt-china-uighurs-detained.html
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Qatar’s Critics Scale Back Demands in Diplomatic Bid
Jul 19, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Farnaz Fassihi
Four Arab nations locked in a dispute with Qatar said Tuesday that they have revised and curtailed their list of demands for Doha, in a diplomatic overture aimed at moving toward a solution to the standoff.
Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt told reporters that they had altered their demands from 13 detailed requests to six generalized ones focused on “principles.”
“Of course we are all for compromise but there will be no compromise on these six principles,” said Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, Saudi ambassador to the U.N.
Qatar’s ambassador to the U.N. dismissed the new demands as a move to save face amid international pressure on the group to end the standoff. Still, both sides said they hoped to resolve their problem through regional mediation. They also reiterated that they had no plan to escalate the conflict to a military standoff.
Among the more prominent changes to the Arab quartet’s was a decision to stop calling for Qatar to shut down the Al Jazeera broadcasting network, or to expel people deemed problematic, such as clerics with extremist Islamic views.
The new list also avoids imposing deadlines and casts a broader approach, asking Qatar to refrain from inciting violence and to aid regional and international efforts to combat terrorism. It also demands that Qatar remain committed to a set of previous counterterrorism agreements with Arab countries in 2013 and 2014.
Qatar had previously rejected the demands of the group, which carried a deadline of July 5, as a violation of its sovereignty.
Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the U.N., said Tuesday that the group was trying to ease the pressure created by the diplomatic and economic standoff the group sparked in early June
“It’s not because they are showing a sign of good faith as much as responding to the heat they received for the unreasonable demands they initially made,” she said.
In the past few weeks, the U.S. and the U.N. have stepped up mediation efforts between Qatar and the opposing Arab countries. Kuwait is playing a regional role in mediating the crisis. Turkey and Iran have sided with Qatar, with Turkey dispatching military personnel to Doha and Iran sending planeloads of aid and food to help Qatar circumvent a trade blockade.
For the U.S., the diplomatic crisis is an added complication to a Middle East already embroiled in conflict and upheaval, from Syria to Iraq and Libya. Extremist violence by groups such as Islamic State have been fueled by Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson traveled to the region last week and met with officials to urge an end the rift, which threatens the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition. The U.S. and Qatar signed a mutual agreement to combat terrorism financing, a development seen as positive.
The U.N. also dispatched its top political envoy, former American diplomat Jeffrey Feltman, to the region to try to broker a truce between Qatar and its opponents. Diplomats and officials from all sides have traveled to New York and met with U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and members of the Security Council.
Still, the Arab quartet struck a tough tone. UAE’s minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy said the ball was now in Qatar’s court and Egypt’s deputy ambassador to the U.N. said Qatar had a false perception of its regional status and power.
Ms. Al Hashimy said the decision to cut ties with Qatar wasn’t based on one recent trigger but on an accumulation of years of disagreement over the country’s policies.
Corrections & Amplifications
Alya bint Ahmed Al Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to the U.N., is female. An earlier version of this article referred to her gender incorrectly. (July 19, 2017)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/qatars-critics-scale-back-demands-in-diplomatic-bid-1500441047
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Yields Fall on Egypt's Six-Month, One-Year T-Bills; Foreign Demand High
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Eric Knecht
The average yields on Egypt's six-month and one-year treasury bills fell in an auction on Wednesday, data from the central bank showed, amid high foreign participation.
The average yield on the 182-day bill fell to 21.679 percent from 22.278 percent at the last sale on July 13, and the yield on the 364-day bill fell to 21.706 percent from 21.993 percent in a similar auction.
Foreign buying accounted for 50.4 percent of Wednesday's auction sale, standing at 7.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($413.41 million), the head of public debt at the Finance Ministry, Sami Khallaf, told Reuters.
Demand for Egypt's domestic debt has increased since the central bank floated the currency in November as part of an International Monetary Fund lending programme aimed at boosting the economy. Egypt's central bank has increased key interest rates by 700 basis points since the pound float.
Reporting by Eric Knecht; Writing by Arwa Gaballa; Editing by John Stonestreet and Ken Ferris
http://www.reuters.com/article/egypt-treasury-bonds-idUSL3N1KA3XM
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Egypt Agricultural Exports Up 12.1 Pct in First Half 2017
Jul 19, 2017 | Reuters
By Eric Knecht
Egypt's agricultural exports rose 12.1 percent during the first half of 2017, reaching 3.5 million tonnes compared to 3.1 million last year, agriculture ministry spokesman Hamid Abdel Dayim said on Wednesday.
Egypt's agricultural exporters have seen a surge in demand since the country floated its currency last November, allowing it to roughly halve in value as part of reforms tied to a three-year $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan agreement.
Exports increased in citrus, potatoes, grapes, and strawberries, and fell only for onions, Dayim said.
The export growth comes after a turbulent year for Egyptian produce, with a Hepatitis A scare in North America linked to Egyptian strawberries and a temporary ban of Egyptian fruits and vegetables in Russia, one of Cairo's major buyers.
(Writing by Eric Knecht. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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Gulf Business Counts Cost of Arab states’ Qatar Embargo
Jul 19, 2017 | Financial Times
By Simeon Kerr
When the quartet of Arab nations imposed an embargo on Qatar a month ago, accusing the gas-rich Gulf state of backing terrorism, they quickly closed air, sea and land borders to their neighbour.
For Mohammed Saleh, who runs a business that distributes building materials across the region, the crisis left an important Qatar-bound cargo stranded at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port. He had to take out a loan to pay his supplier, losing £30,000 in the process.
“One minute we are doing business with Qatar, the next we are told we are doing business with terrorist financiers,” he said. “It’s all so confusing.”
From construction companies to financial consultancies, the private sector has been left reeling by the move from the quartet of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt to abandon quiet diplomacy in favour of harsh measures that seek to bend Doha to their will.
The UAE this week had to deny a report that it orchestrated a cyber attack on Qatar’s state media in May that resulted in false statements being attributed to the gas-rich nation’s emir.
With no end in sight to a dispute that has pitted US allies against one another, the embargo has jeopardised the Gulf’s hard-won position as a haven of business stability within the restive Middle East.
Most Gulf nationals now cannot travel to or from Qatar, breaking up families, business ties and dealing a blow to cross-border investments. Business people who are already struggling with the regional slowdown caused by the lower oil price say the embargo is also causing uncertainty and confusion and pushing up costs.
“Qatar used to be lucrative business but now it all costs more,” says one contractor. “While we can get paid in [Qatari] riyals for now, will that be true in the future?
Doha officials say they will do all they can to maintain imports to prevent the crisis from hitting ordinary Qataris and to sustain its $500m-a-week pipeline of infrastructure projects as it prepares to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.
Qatar is one of the world’s richest nations, in per capita terms, due to its vast gas reserves and small population of just 2.7m people. But with its sole land border to Saudi Arabia blocked, the country has been forced to spend significant sums of money to airlift and ship in vegetables and fruit from Iran and Turkish dairy products.
“No one will be left out of pocket,” says a senior Qatari official, when asked about the financial impact of the embargo on suppliers. But he refused to pledge compensation for businesses ensnared by the moratorium.
When the embargo was announced in early June, some Doha residents embarked on panic buying sprees at supermarkets, while others drained the city’s foreign exchange bureaux of US dollars.
Meanwhile business people such as Mr Saleh are feeling the pinch. His small materials business, whose revenues are split between Qatar and Dubai, faces higher travel and logistics costs with the end to direct air and maritime routes.
The regional trans-shipment hub of Jebel Ali has barred Qatar-bound vessels until further notice. UAE authorities have also notified freight-forwarders not to handle any cargo destined for Qatar, including shipments via a third country.
Contractors are shifting supply chains from the UAE to Oman, which has remained neutral in the dispute. Mr Saleh, for example, managed to get his blocked shipment to Qatar by rerouting it via the Omani port of Salalah — an additional 10 days en route.
Qatari business people say they are also having to seek alternative sources for building materials such as aggregate — blown out of the rocks of the Hajar Mountains — from Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE over the border to Oman.
Companies can still move materials from the UAE to Qatar, albeit with extra precautions, says one lawyer working in the region. “You have to break delivery — you can’t issue a bill of landing in Doha from Dubai routed via Salalah,” he says. “But it can be done with separate contracts of carriage.”
As companies set about finding strategies to work around the embargo, UAE officials have threatened further restrictions against businesses that carry on doing business with Qatar.
“It is entirely rational for us to choose our partners on the basis of where they establish ties,” said Omar Ghobash, the UAE’s ambassador to Russia. “There is nothing definite yet, but it is logical for us to shun those who are getting into bed with the Qataris.”
Multinationals operating out of the regional business hub of Dubai are already having to decide whether their Qatar business is lucrative enough to risk censure in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt — the three largest Arab economies in the Middle East.
“The crisis has encouraged companies to think about restructuring to keep UAE and Qatar operations separate,” says one diplomat.
Others are pre-empting any call to sever ties with Qatar by turning down new business there. Some are shifting responsibility for servicing Qatari clients from Dubai to offices in Europe.
This is not an option for Mr Saleh, who for now will keep looking for ways around the embargo
. “Oh we can read between the lines,” he says. “All our business partners say just do not tell anyone we are doing business in Qatar.”
https://www.ft.com/content/0719486e-6bbb-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa?mhq5j=e1
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Trump Administration Should Withhold Aid to Rein in Egypt's Sisi
Jul 19, 2017 | The Hill - Pundits Blog
By Brian Dooley
For Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Trump administration, it’s decision time on Egypt. Tillerson must decide in the coming weeks whether to release the 15 percent of Foreign Military Funding (FMF) contingent on human rights reform. A 2016 law requires the secretary of state to certify that Egypt “is taking effective steps to protect freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including the ability of civil society organizations and the media to function without interference."
President Sisi’s government clearly isn’t taking effective steps to protect these human rights — quite the contrary — and Tillerson could say so and release the aid anyway by invoking the law’s national security waiver. But he’s under increasing congressional pressure to take a harder line against Egypt’s repression.
Further complicating matters is the acrimony between U.S. military allies in the Arabian Gulf. On one side is Qatar, which is backed by Turkey. On the other is Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, who are backed by Egypt. Tillerson is trying to mediate, but the rhetoric from both sides is escalating dangerously. The United States has thousands of military personnel in Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE. Washington also has a huge military relationship with Egypt, which itself is looking increasingly fragile.
There were four hearings in Congress last month on aid to Egypt, and on June 19, a bipartisan group of 10 senators wrote to President Trump saying they were “gravely concerned by the worsening situation for human rights and civil society in Egypt, including the new law restricting nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),” signed by Sisi in May.
Separately, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) publicly warned Sisi that, “With this [NGO] law in place, Congress should strengthen democratic benchmarks and human rights conditions on U.S. assistance for Egypt.”
This week, I met human rights activists in Cairo who have been jailed on trumped-up charges, or are awaiting trial for spurious offenses. Many are prevented from leaving the country. The activists — whom I’m not naming for fear of putting them in danger — agree that withholding 15 percent of military funding would send a crucial signal to Sisi.
The United States should try everything, they say, to stop the intensifying attacks on what remains of Egyptian civil society. One activist told me, “This 15 percent is a major deal. It’s a chance for Washington to show it doesn’t approve of Sisi’s attacks on human rights, that it’s serious about pushing for reform. The U.S. has leverage, and it should use it.”
The new NGO law will virtually eliminate human rights advocacy in the country. Dozens of activists face charges for allegedly receiving foreign funding. Peaceful dissidents are jailed, exiled, or facing travel bans and asset freezes. Activists estimate that 140 websites — including virtual private networks, which enable greater security for activists — are now blocked.
Sisi’s repression is also fueling violent extremism, making Egypt more dangerous.
Tillerson has to decide whether to release the 15 percent — $195 million of the $1.3 billion annual package — by Sept. 30. He will have a similar decision this time next year because the fiscal year (FY) 2017 law also conditions 15 percent of FMF on human rights reform.
What will be in the FY 2018 law is still being thrashed out. Activists hope that it will dispense with the much-derided national security waiver and properly link Egypt’s military aid to reform.
Sisi, who is up for election next year, wants public support from the United States. His visit to the White House earlier this year helped boost his credibility internally. An announcement that the U.S. government is withholding aid because of his repression would be deeply embarrassing.
Censuring Sisi in this way is long overdue. If the Trump administration wants to encourage its erratic ally away from repression and toward more stable politics, it should withhold the aid.
Brian Dooley (@dooley_dooley) is senior advisor at Human Rights First, an international human rights organization based in New York, Washington D.C., Houston and Los Angeles.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/342499-tillerson-should-withhold-aid-to-rein-in-egypts-sisi
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Egypt Keen on Protecting Qatari Investments
Jul 18, 2017 | Al-Monitor
By George Mikhail
The breakdown in relations between Qatar and Egypt isn't expected to affect investments between the countries, according to Egyptian officials and some economic experts.
Egypt decided, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, to sever ties with Qatar on June 5. The financial world immediately predicted the break in ties would negatively affect economic relations between Qatar and the Gulf states involved.
But Egypt says it did not make the decision lightly and took into consideration Qatari investments in Egypt. According to data from Egypt's General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, 210 Qatari companies have more than $1.1 billion invested in Egypt, mainly in the services sector, followed by industry.
Egypt has been keen to reassure Qatari investors working in Egypt; Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr confirmed in a June 7 press statement that Qatari investments in Egypt are protected by law.
“The Egyptian state respects its contracts and provides a safe environment for the investments of individuals and institutions on its territory,” she said.
The countries that cut ties with Qatar did so because, they allege, Qatar finances terrorist operations and harbors extremists. Qatar denies the allegations.
After the ties were cut, many Egyptian businessmen — even some who cooperate with Qatari entrepreneurs — criticized Qatari investments and businesses in Egypt.
“The law and investments ought to be respected in Egypt. But I believe that Qatari investors are not welcomed in Egypt for the time being. Let them take their investments and move away from us. We cannot cooperate with a state that funds the people who kill our children," Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris said June 5 during a phone call with Egyptian TV talk show host Lamis El Hadidi on Extra News channel.
He added, “I call upon all Egyptian and Gulf businessmen not to invest in Qatar or within its territories because it is a matter of principle. We should not cooperate with a state that supports terrorism."
Following Egypt's decision to boycott Qatar, rumors abounded of a government decision to stop trading in Qatar's currency, the riyal, and suspend the activities of the Qatar National Bank (QNB), which has several branches in Egypt. But Tariq Amer, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), denied the reports in a June 5 statement to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
“The QNB bank is an Egyptian bank that is subject to the CBE law and supervision, although it is owned by Qatar’s Ahli Bank. The deposits of all customers at QNB in Egypt are as safe as any other deposits in different banks in Egypt subject to CBE supervision,” Amer said. He also denied claims about banning Qatari riyals.
Despite those denials, the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab TV channel Al-Arabiya Net published a report June 8 predicting dire consequences and claiming that Qatari investments in Egypt had already been negatively affected, but the report provided no statistics or sources. The report also said the rate of withdrawals from the QNB had increased since ties were severed.
Former Egyptian-Qatari Business Council member Mohammed Saad al-Din told Al-Monitor, “A large number of Egyptian businessmen invest in Qatar and vice versa. Therefore, it is not in the best interest of governments to fight investment and use it as a political card in the political game, which could adversely affect the economic interests of both countries.”
He added, “The political crisis between Egypt and Qatar has an indirect effect on Qatari investors in Egypt, as they do not want to expand their investments fearing a worsening political crisis — although there have not been any real tighter measures against them. But businessmen with large [investments] do not take risks."
Qatari businesses in Egypt boomed under former President Mohammed Morsi. "However, after Morsi was deposed [in 2013], the Qatari investments were affected and the members of the Egyptian-Qatari Business Council suspended the council’s activities for fear that the governments might crack down on them. Yet some Qatari businessmen preferred to keep their businesses in Egypt, which remained unaffected by the deterioration of the Egyptian-Qatari relations. There are also some Egyptian businessmen who continue to invest in Qatar," Saad al-Din said.
He doesn't expect Qatari businesses and investments in Egypt to be affected by the current situation, because the Egyptian state wants to attract investments from different countries. He is confident that the investment environment in Egypt has nothing to do with political relations and the best proof of this is ongoing Turkish investments in Egypt despite poor relations between the countries.
“Investment knows no homeland as long as it is financially and economically beneficial for the concerned countries,” he said.
Economist Rashad Abdo also told Al-Monitor, “Qatari investments and businesses in Egypt will remain unharmed so as not to affect the Egyptian economic situation. Qatari investors will not be deported from Egypt or have their businesses shut down, as this is in direct conflict with the law, which protects investment contracts and would come to the detriment of the Egyptian government, which wishes to preserve its business relations.”
He added, “The political crisis between Egypt and Qatar was not reflected in the economic relations between the two countries. The Egyptian state deals with Qatari investors as per the law, as long as their investments are in the best interest of the state and not politically motivated."
Despite Egypt’s decision to cut relations with Qatar, the Egyptian state is keen on preserving Qatari investments within its territories, and it fears for the conditions of Egyptian workers in Qatar. Egyptian expatriates in Qatar number about 300,000, according to a June 5 press statement in Al-Youm Al-Sabeh by Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram.
George Mikhail is a freelance journalist who specializes in minority and political issues. He graduated from Cairo University in 2009 and has worked for a number of Egyptian newspapers
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/egypt-cut-ties-qatar-investments-economy.html
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