|
US lawmaker: Aid to Egypt depends on peace with Israel
Kay Granger tells Post that level of Muslim Brotherhood involvement in new Egyptian government will impact US assistance.Washingtons $2 billion in annual aid to Egypt will be cut off if Cairo backs out of the peace treaty with Israel, Congresswoman Kay Granger whose job as chairwoman of the US House appropriations foreign operations subcommittee means she literally writes Americas annual foreign aid bill told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. The United States aid to Egypt is predicated on the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and so the relationship between Egypt and Israel is extremely important, the eight-term Republican from Texas said in an interview. As an appropriator I have two concerns: One thing is the continuing relationship between Egypt and Israel, and the other thing of course is what government we will be dealing with in Egypt, and what position the Muslim Brotherhood will play in this government. Granger, here among a delegation of 25 Republican congressmen sponsored by the American Israel Educational Foundation, a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said she is on record as saying that if the treaty between Egypt and Israel is not continued, our financial support will not continue. Since the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, the US has provided Cairo with $2b. of aid annually, $1.3b. in military assistance and the rest in economic assistance. Granger, who along with the delegation is scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, said it has been made clear that if the PA goes through with its statehood recognition bid at the UN in September, the roughly $500m. of US aid to the PA would be suspended. She said this would include money for Palestinian security training. Granger said the message the delegation would bring to Abbas was that there was a strong bipartisan desire in the US Congress to see a return to peace negotiations in a very serious way. Posted by: 2011-08-24 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=328548 |