“A decision to waive restrictions on FMF to Egypt is necessary to uphold these interests as we encourage Egypt to continue its transition to democracy,” he continued. . The unpopular memo was reportedly sent to congressional appropriations committees while some aides didn’t even know about its existence. Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department last year also waived the restriction, however, it announced the decision and publicly defended its position to the media. The Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin has more details: The law that allows the State Department to give Egypt $1.3 billion each year in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) specifies that to get the money, the secretary of State must certify that Egypt is honoring its peace treaty with Israel as well as “supporting the transition to civilian government including holding free and fair elections; implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law.” Several members of Congress said this week that Egypt’s sentencing of American NGO workers, who were there to help Egypt build up its civil society and to promote democracy, flew in the face of that very law, meaning that Egypt should not get the money. Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, told The Daily Beast that it was “very alarming that no public statement was made by the secretary or the Department of State more broadly in conjunction with the waiving of these conditions.” Do you think the U.S. should be providing more than $1 billion in aid to Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt?
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:51:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015