A group of 11 US senators has called on the United States to withhold a larger portion of military aid to Egypt, saying the North African country’s human rights record “has continued to deteriorate” over the past year under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In a letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, the US lawmakers said Egypt had made little progress on human rights issues, including strengthening the rule of law, protecting media freedoms, and investigating forced disappearances.
The signatories, which included several members of US President Joe Biden’s own Democratic Party, urged the Biden administration to withhold $320m in so-called foreign military financing that Washington sends to Cairo each year.
“The [Egyptian] government has not only failed to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, it has also continued to commit ‘significant human rights’ violations such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture and life-threating prison conditions, and severe restrictions on freedoms of expression, assembly, and association,” they said.
The letter (PDF) was led by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, and senators Bernie Sanders, Dick Durbin, and Elizabeth Warren were among the signatories.
It is the latest effort in the United States to condition American aid to Egypt – a longstanding US ally in the Middle East – on the basis of human rights.
For years, rights groups have accused the government of el-Sisi, who came to power in a 2013 military coup, of jailing tens of thousands of dissidents and outlawing virtually all forms of political opposition.
