7/27/2019 Graham Ready to Support Egypt Aid Slowdown
1/3
Congressional Quarterly
NEWS POLICY
Oct. 9, 2013 2:45 p.m.
Graham Ready to Support Egypt Aid Slowdown
By Emily Cadei, CQ Roll Call
An influential appropriator said Wednesday he would absolutely
support an
Obama administration move to cut off a chunk of military aid to
Egypt, although
neither he nor other leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been
briefed on any
decision.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the ranking Republican on
the
Appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department and
foreign aid,
said he is incredibly disappointed with the Egyptian militarys
behavior since itousted democratically elected President Mohammed
Morsi in July, explaining that
its attacks on Morsis Muslim Brotherhood organization and other
dissidents
risked creating a permanent insurgency.
The White House, he added, needs to let military leaders know we
want a good
relationship with Egypt, but youve taken the country down a path
that we cant
support.
Its pretty hard for a democracy like us, after the Arab Spring,
to stand up againstMubarak but act like business as usual with
al-Sisi, said Graham, referring to the
longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in
2011, and the
current head of the Egyptian military, General Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi.
Several news outlets have reported that after several months of
review, the
Obama administration has decided to suspend a significant amount
of the $1.3
billion in annual aid it sends to Egypts military.
Administration officials, however,
have kept Congress almost entirely in the dark about both their
review and what
they plan to do with the aid package going forward.
Its total radio silence, said one House aide, who works for a
relevant
committee.
7/27/2019 Graham Ready to Support Egypt Aid Slowdown
2/3
The aide said his staff has been working for weeks and weeks to
set up a
briefing with the State Department to discuss the future of
Egypt aid, but Foggy
Bottom has consistently rebuffed our efforts.
Ive never seen an instance where State has just flat out refused
to discuss anissue of such foreign policy significance, he
said.
Graham and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on
the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed Wednesday that they have
not received
a briefing from the administration on any decision on Egypt
assistance, either.
Corker, however, said he was not surprised by the reports that
the administration
will hold up some aid to Cairo.
Its, generally speaking, what I thought was going to happen ...
that is, a
suspension of some, a continuance of those that are in our
national interest, like
counterterrorism and the Sinai desert, he said.
In continuing the latter types of assistance, the White House is
still maintaining
the relationship in a pretty large way, it looks like to me, he
said.
The one thing Corker said he had wanted to confirm is that the
U.S. military will
not halt training programs for Egyptian military officers.
The fact is, weve got 11,000 officers there that have been
trained militarily, he
said. We made a big mistake with Pakistan years ago and for a
long period of
time there was not that relationship, and it created some
problems for us, as we
all know.
Symbolic Importance
Few on Capitol Hill believe that the suspension of the military
aid which is likely
to hamper Cairos ability to make big military hardware
purchases, such asApache helicopters or F-16 fighter jets will have
much tangible effect on their
security.
But they agree that such a move would be important politically
and symbolically.
