Aftandilian: Rocky Road for Egypt Relations
Gregory Aftandilian, Visiting Lecturer in International Relations for the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that human rights abuses in Egypt will remain sore points as they pursue military support options from the U. S.
The argument came in a March 10 op-ed on Al Jazeera America entitled “Rocky Road Ahead for US-Egypt Relations.”
In the op-ed, Aftandilian writes:
“Egypt’s strong stand against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), especially in the wake of the brutal killings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by an ISIL-affiliate in Libya, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s call on Muslim religious figures to re-examine Islamic texts to bring them into the modern world as a hedge against their exploitation by extremist groups, have contributed to a more positive image of the Egyptian government within the halls of the US Congress.
“Such sentiments will make it easier for the Obama administration to resume deliveries of some held-up military items, such as F-16 fighter jets. However, until the Sisi government eases up on human rights abuses, particularly of journalists, bloggers and secular opposition activists, relations will remain problematic despite this recent mending of fences.”
You can read the entire article here.
Aftandilian, a consultant, scholar, and lecturer, is an adjunct faculty member at Boston University and American University. He is also an associate of the Middle East Center at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and a Senior Fellow for the Middle East at the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C. He spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).