US attempts to protect interest in post-Mubarak Egypt

Mon May 14, 2012 6:31PM GMT
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Interview with Abayomi Azikiwi, editor of Pan-African News Wire
I believe they have to say this diplomatically, to say that they are for a democratic transition in Egypt but in actuality, the interest of the United States lies in keeping Egypt as a close subservient ally to Washington. This is clear when we look at the stance that the US took during 2011.

It was very late before they came out in support of the removal of the NDP government under Mubarak. Even today, they are positioning themselves irrespective of who wins the national elections later on this month in the runoff elections in June. They want to cultivate a good relationship with the government in order to be able to control Egypt’s relationship not only with the United States but also with the state of Israel and the other monarchs in the Persian Gulf.”

A leading candidate running for president in Egypt has demanded the revision of the 1979 peace accord with Israel, calling the treaty a threat to Egypt’s national security.

“I still view the peace treaty as a national security threat to Egypt, and it must be revised,” said Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh in an interview with the private Egyptian CBC satellite station on Saturday.

Abul Fotouh, a front-runner in the upcoming election according to polls, had already described Israel as an “enemy” of Egypt in a televised debate with his main contender, former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Mussa.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwi, editor of Pan-African News Wire, to further explore the issue.

The video also offers opinions of one additional guest: Abdullah al-Ashaal, an Egyptian presidential hopeful.

What following is an approximate transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Abayomi Azikiwi, is what we are looking at perhaps the outcome that came out of the Camp David Accords which involved the US military aid, the 1.3 billion dollars?

Tell us about how it interfered perhaps and violated maybe Egypt’s sovereignty and at the same time, tell us that wasn’t this also supposed to help ordinary Egyptians and which it didn’t?

Azikiwi: No, I do not think it has helped ordinary Egyptians. The statistics indicate that many people in Egypt are living on less than 2 dollars a day.

We have to go back to at least 1972 when there were problems between the former Soviet Union and the [Anwar] Sadat government that resulted in some parting of ways between the Soviet Union and Egypt and then in 1973, with the war with Israel, it also increased tensions between the United States and Egypt.

In the aftermath of that, there was a concerted effort on the part of the US administration under both the Nixon regime as well as the Ford administration and later Jimmy Cater to cultivate a closer relationship between the government in Egypt and the United States.

And this of course resulted in the Camp David Accords which were negotiated in 1978 and signed in 1979. Then Egypt became the second largest recipient of US foreign aid throughout the entire world. There has been since that time close collaboration both politically and economically.

Also we have to look at the direct military assistance on the part of the United States to Egypt which involved the intelligence sharing and many other joint military operations. I think the US is very concerned about the political transition that is taking place right now in Egypt.

Press TV: First of all, what transpired in the past three decades in terms of the US? They supported Hosni Mubarak; they supported what he did to the Egyptians which included the detentions, the torture.

I am looking right now at what has been outlined from the Embassy of the United States regarding Egypt which concerns the Middle East partnership initiative, the US aid and DRL. It is very interesting.

Here they are saying we are interested in democracy, supporting the democratic transition, the approach for project areas, preparing for elections to build Egypt’s democratic future, encouraging civic participation, supporting independent labor. Why didn’t this happen before when Mubarak was in power?

Azikiwi: I believe they have to say this diplomatically, to say that they are for a democratic transition in Egypt but in actuality, the interest of the United States lies in keeping Egypt as a close subservient ally to Washington. This is clear when we look at the stance that the US took during 2011.

It was very late before they came out in support of the removal of the NDP government under Mubarak. Even today, they are positioning themselves irrespective of who wins the national elections later on this month in the runoff elections in June. They want to cultivate a good relationship with the government in order to be able to control Egypt’s relationship not only with the United States but also with the state of Israel and the other monarchs in the Persian Gulf.

Press TV: I am trying to find out how Egyptians are going to trust the United States after 3 decades they were suppressed while the US supported that regime. But let’s move on to the Pew survey, Egyptians holding a less favorable view of President Barack Obama.

Nineteen percent only have confidence in him, compared to 2009 forty two percent confidence vote there. What happened there? If we could focus on that, the US president will obviously lose his elections in his own country. So explain to us how it is that only 19 percent hold a favorable view of the US in Egypt.

Azikiwi: It is not surprising. If you consider what has transpired between Egypt and the United States over the last four decades, many people inside of Egypt itself do not trust the motivations of the United States. They were close allies with the Hosni Mubarak regime.

However, it would be very interesting to see how the elections turn out later on this month because according to some polls inside the country, Amr Muossa, who is the former foreign minister and secretary general to the Arab League, according to the polls, is leading among voters in Egypt.

It is quite surprising. So therefore, it would be somewhat of an interesting perspective to look at what is actually going to happen. Then of course we have the candidacy of Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh who is of course a moderate Islamist candidate who has been criticizing Amr Moussa for his former ties with the Mubarak regime.

Then of course we have Mr. Morsy who represents the Freedom and Justice Party and Ahmed Shafigh who is also another candidate who was the last prime minister of the Egyptian government of Mubarak which was brought down last year.

This is going to be a very interesting election to look at and all of these candidates are scrambling in an attempt to build alliances in order to bring about their victory in the elections.