Senator's human rights objections block some US aid to Egypt

WASHINGTON (AP) — A veteran senator's objections over Egypt's human rights record, including its holding of an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, has compelled the Biden administration to trim a symbolically significant $75 million off its planned annual military aid to that country.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy, the senator responsible, said in a statement Monday it was important that U.S. administrations not allow other policy interests to override congressionally mandated attention to Egypt's poor human rights record, “because the situation facing political prisoners in Egypt is deplorable.”

The U.S. gives more than $1 billion in military aid annually to Egypt, which it views as a regionally important ally to the U.S. and Israel. That's despite President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's record on human rights, including what rights groups say is the killing, imprisonment and torture of critics of the Egyptian government.

Congress in recent years has made the U.S. payment of $300 million of that aid contingent on Egypt's government showing progress on rights, although the State Department can and often does overrule that requirement. Congress’s conditioning of some of Egypt’s security aid makes for an annual public test of U.S. administrations' balancing of strategic interests and human rights.