Obama pressure on Egypt did not work . Maybe Israel could learn something about friends. Strange bedfellows Obama and the Moslem Brotherhood. Lenny P The Obama administration’s capacity to influence the coming course of events is limited. The Egyptian defense minister refuses to heed US demands to restore the country to democratically-elected civilian rule at this time - certain that it would only take the country back to Muslim Brotherhood rule. He is not worried by White House rebukes or US and European threats to cut off economic and military aid to Egypt, because he has Saudi Arabia and the Emirates behind him. According to debkafile’s intelligence sources, they have pledged $40 million dollars to bolster the military in power and make sure that the Muslim Brotherhood is finally purged. Wednesday night, the United States “strongly condemned” the violence in Egypt in a statement issued by the White House secretary from Martha’s Vineyard where President Barack Obama is on holiday. He accused “the new interim government of breaking its promise of a return to democratic civilian leadership and condemned the “return to a state-of-emergency law.” All the same, said the White House spokesman, “talks are ongoing between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry and their Egyptian counterparts.” Bu beyond this, President Obama is evidently unwilling to go. 1. He is not about to directly challenge Gen. El-Sisi and the Egyptian army; 2. He will not pick a fight with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates as the military ruler’s backers; 3. He is not stepping in to save the Muslim Brotherhood from political extinction, although its loss would eliminate the key to the Middle East policy which he launched in 2009 and which presented the Brothers as a moderate movement and therefore America’s chosen senior ally in the Muslim world.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 05:25:52 +0000
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