While concluding a $2.5 billion dollars arms deal with Egypts Brutal el-Sissi led regime this week, the White House trumped a limitation of a paltry $130 million of the whopping $2.5 billion, as a ‘punitive’ measure due to Egypts human rights violations.
CNN writes,
‘”The last place that needs $130 million is Egypt,” the senior State Department official said, adding that Congress has been informed and there is “complete consensus” within the department on the recommendation that Secretary of State Antony Blinken not allow Egypt to receive the money which will now be allotted to other countries.’
$130 million denied of $2.5 billion just approved! What a peck on the wrist.
The reason for the White house’s fake announcement, aimed at misleading what they regard as a gullible audience, seems not too far from the desperate need to rebrand a tanked Biden reputation.
AP/Reuters remarked in Deutsche Welle:
‘Not much more than a slap on the wrist’
Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, welcomed the decision to withhold military aid while expressing disappointment on the arms sale.
“This was the right decision,” Holewinski said, referring to the withholding of military aid.
“Egypt’s atrocious human rights record should leave no room for compromises from the US government.”
Speaking on the $2.5 billion arms sale, she added that denying the $130 million was “not much more than a slap on the wrist given those handouts.”
Egypt has in recent years engaged in a broad crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people.
Even CNN could not take the Biden administration’s absurdness:
While the move is both punitive and symbolic, human rights activists argue that those millions withheld are dwarfed by the $2.5 billion sale of US weapons and equipment to Egypt authorized just this week by the Biden administration.
While the move is both punitive and symbolic, human rights activists argue that those millions withheld are dwarfed by the $2.5 billion sale of US weapons and equipment to Egypt authorized just this week by the Biden administration.
