Himes: Egypt “balancing on a knife’s edge’

Egypt, Rep. Jim Himes says, is “balancing on a knife’s edge.”

The Democrat from Greenwich just returned from an official visit to Egypt, Morocco and Chad last week with fellow members of the House Intelligence Committee. He met with Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi (then Defense Minister, now just a regular old Field Marshal after the Cabinet was dissolved Monday), the presumptive presidential candidate. Himes said he found him to be “genuinely thoughtful.”

Rep. Jim Himes says Egypt must provide tens of millions of poor Egyptians with "an economic alternative to rage."

Rep. Jim Himes says Egypt must provide tens of millions of poor Egyptians with “an economic alternative to rage.” (Photo by Cathy Zuraw)

“We pressed him on how hard it is to support somebody acting repressive,” Himes said. “He’s got to stop jailing journalists and moderates who would otherwise be constructive participants in the political process.”

He said that even though former President Mohamed Morsi  had “the virtue of being democratically elected, while al-Sisi does not,” he thought Morsi “did a catastrophic job of governing.”

“Like him or not, al-Sisi is the man on the ground. We must be very careful not to contribute to destabilization. Egypt has 90 million people. It’s the center of the Arab world. If it deteriorated into Libya or Syria it would be catastrophic.”

Himes said he thought Al-Sisi is “surprisingly educated on the economic challenge he faces. He has tens of millions of poor Egyptians, susceptible to radicalization. He has to give them an economic alternative to rage.”

By way of context, Himes said, “The real mistake that the United States regularly makes is believing there’s any path to rapid democracy — in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. It’s a generational process.”

He cited King Mohamed VI of Morocco’s moves to give more power to the parliament and the judiciary, as effective counters to civil unrest. “It seems to have worked. He was able to liberalize in ways that reduced the threat,” Himes said. “It was careful, thoughtful reform that is antidote to people saying we have no alternative but violence.”

Himes said, “The entire region is under threat _ from legitimate demands for government accountability, to some very dangerous characters who would li9ke to create more ungoverned space. These folks would like nothing more than to see anarchy in Morocco and Egypt.

“We have to accompany our partnership with Egypt with a very aggressive stance on appropriate liberalizations. It’s got to be a combination of helping and pushing for reforms.”

He said Al-Sisi expressed interest in getting currently suspended aid programs restarted _ particularly military aid including Apache helicopters. “We see the reasons for doing that, but we told him it’s hard to make the case to our colleagues when he’s jailing journalists and beating up reformers,” Himes said.

 

David McCumber, Washington Bureau Chief