WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – According to a high-ranking State Department executive, congressional sources, and advocates, the Biden government has chosen to withhold $130 million in military aid to Egypt due to the nation’s failure to abide by the State Department’s human rights criteria.
The unusual step against a strong ally arrives shortly before a January 30 time limit for the State Department to reveal plans for the finances, which are the final portion of a tumultuous $300 million aid package that was divided in September, with just around half going to Egypt at the time and the rest held back until just now due to human rights issues.
Egypt is the last country in the necessity of $130 million, according to a senior State Department official, who also stated that Congress has already been notified and that there is total agreement inside the department on the proposal that Secretary of State Antony Blinken denies Egypt access to the funds that will now be distributed to other countries.
Two congressional sources verified that they were informed regarding the State Department’s intentions on Wednesday, and CNN spoke with human rights groups who were also notified.
On Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told journalists that the money’s status had not altered and that Blinken had yet to make a decision. On Thursday, Blinken talked to his Egyptian colleague, Sameh Shoukry, discussing a variety of concerns, notably human rights, but the department’s report of the call left out the aid money.
President Joe Biden campaigned on ending “blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator,'” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the withholding of cash for Egypt would be a first for the Biden administration.
While the measure is both severe and significant, human rights activists claim that the millions blocked pale in comparison to the $2.5 billion in weaponry and equipment sold to Egypt by the Biden administration only last week.
According to the State Department official, the transaction, which comprises a dozen big transport airplanes and three radar systems, is in the US security interest and is being compensated in part using American military aid funds recently received by Egypt.
The sum that Egypt would no longer receive is 10 percent of the $1.3 billion in annual military aid that the US provides to Egypt. As it has before, the State Department can utilize an oft-criticized national security waiver to get around the aid’s human rights conditions.
