After meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry promised to immediately send Egypt an additional $250 million in aid, as the US tries desperately to maintain influence in the key Middle East state.
In their closed-door, one on one meeting, Kerry initially called on Morsi to implement economic reforms in order to be eligible for nearly $5 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the subject soon turned to unlocking the $450 million in US aid that Congress delayed over concerns about the Islamist leadership in Egypt.
Of the $250 million Kerry pledged, $190 million comes from the $450 million Congress froze. The remainder could be unfrozen and sent to Egypt’s government, Kerry said, if political reforms come through. This is on top of the $2 billion the Washington still provides Egypt.
“When Egypt takes the difficult steps to strengthen its economy and build political unity and justice, we will work with our Congress at home on additional support,” Kerry said. “These steps will also unlock much needed private-sector investment and broader financial assistance.”
Kerry spoke of the need to help Egypt through troubling times, and at least rhetorically made more aid contingent on progressive reforms. But US aid to Egypt serves the interests of power in Washington.
“[T]he U.S. strategy in the region is to prefer a managed transition to civilian rule and democratic governance as long as the American major strategic objectives are not challenged,” wrote Esam Al-Amin last year. Namely, to “keep the Americans in, the Chinese and Russians out, the Iranians down, and the Israelis safe.”
And as The New York Times reported last year, US aid to Egypt helps keep the pockets of defense corporations nice and full.
The US propped up the brutal regime of Hosni Mubarak for decades. With an Egypt still in an uneasy transition, Washington is happy to continue to bribe undemocratic regimes in return for geo-political influence.
No matter who or what.., anything that moves is business to these people.., that's falsified democracy in action defending vulture capitalism.
It seems Morsi is more expensive than Mubarak was. I wonder what treachery these two men are up to now. I can imagine Morsi will be asked to do something more "significant" regarding Syria.
Bribes or bombs. That's America's pathetic foreign policy in a nutshell.
I hope you weren't trying to lump Morsi into the category of "undemocratic regimes." Giving away F-16's makes a lot of sense strategically… they come to us for parts and it solidifies some sort of alliance. Of course it's also welfare for military manufacturers, and makes the world more militarized and dangerous. Time to cut all military aid to Egypt, AND ISRAEL!
This is a pledge that will not be delivered on, just as the demands to make Egypt safe for US corporations will not be delived on. So, just something nice to feed the news cycle. So, the dilemma of an empire. Do you let a country that is slipping out of your control stabilize, and then find levers of influnce — or you do everything to prevent them to get any stability in the first place? The well-known sources of unrest — conservative Salafis and the liberal activists, have little in common — and will result in clashes among them. The "heavyweights" of "opposition", like El-Bardai and Amr Musa — are with US help negotiating with Morsi for a piece of a pie. Morsi is not giving anything but cosmetic concessions. The foreign funded NGO liberals are not at all election favorites. The more they aggitate, the more ordinary people ask themselves who are they really working for. So, the real measure of vote distribution will be between on one hand Brotherhood, and the other, Salafis that broke into two camps. One loyal to Mursi — the Homeland, and others run by clerics turn to Saudi Vahabis for guidance.