Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on Trump’s Egypt Strategy
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed examining the differences in opinion between the Trump administration and Congress on Egypt.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Trump and Pompeo Supportive of Sisi but Congress Not Easing the Pressure,” was published on September 16, 2018 in The Arab Weekly.
From the text of the article:
In a revealing passage in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reportedly said to the US president: “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation [referring to the investigation of the Trump team’s alleged collusion with Russia]. Are you going to be around?”
What Sisi was worried about was that his new friend in the White House, President Donald Trump, might be forced out of office, which would mean that Egypt would have to deal with another US president, who might be tougher on Egypt concerning human rights and other aspects of Egypt’s policies.
In his first year in office, Trump did get a bit tough on Egypt. He pressured Sisi to release an imprisoned dual US-Egyptian national who had been incarcerated, along with her husband, and allowed the US State Department to place an executive hold on $195 million in military aid to Egypt.
Although then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, reflecting the views of the State Department bureaucracy, emphasised that the aid freeze was done largely because of Egypt’s draconian NGO law and human rights problems as well as US congressional mandates, Trump went along with it. He did so because he was upset over Egypt’s alleged assistance to North Korea at a time when he was putting maximum pressure on its leader, Kim Jong-un.
Aftandilian 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).