Israel Matzav

Backing out of peace treaty could cost Egypt $2 billion annually

Representative Kay Granger (R-Tx) has told the Jerusalem Post that the United States will cut off all aid to Egypt if that country abrogates its peace treaty with Israel.

Washington’s $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 America’s 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.”

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Regarding how the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in a future Egyptian government would impact the level of aid, Granger said this would depend “on how much of a position they have.”

Everyone, she said, assumed the Muslim Brotherhood would have some role and some participation in the next Egyptian government, but what will impact the level of US assistance will be the level of its governmental control.

She said all of this has been made clear to the Egyptians, and that at a meeting in March with transition head Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, the first thing she asked was whether the treaty with Israel would be honored.

“The answer was yes,” she said.

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 also has a message with Abu Bluff, with whom her delegation is scheduled to meet on Wednesday.

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.”

But if Granger does that, will Obama veto the foreign aid bill? What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Hussein Tantawi, Kay Granger, Muslim Brotherhood

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:24 AM