U.S. envoy spurned by both sides on Egypt visit

[Catherina]

Source: Reuters

By Maggie Fick and Yasmine Saleh

CAIRO | Mon Jul 15, 2013 4:54pm BST

(Reuters) - The first senior U.S. official to visit Egypt since the army toppled its elected president was snubbed by both Islamists and their opponents on Monday.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns arrived in a divided capital where both sides are furious at the United States, the superpower which supports Egypt with $1.5 billion in annual aid, mostly for the army that deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi two weeks ago.

...

The State Department said Burns would meet "civil society groups" as well as government officials, but the Islamist Nour Party and the Tamarud anti-Mursi protest movement both said they had turned down invitations to meet Burns.

"First, they need to acknowledge the new system," Tamarud founder Mahmoud Badr said of the Americans. "Secondly, they must apologise for their support for the Muslim Brotherhood's party and terrorism. Then we can think about it," he told Reuters.

...

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/15/uk-egypt-protests-idUKBRE96A0ID20130715

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[geek tragedy]

1. No constructive role for us to play there.

Egypt will rise, or Egypt will burn. Their country, their fate, their choice.

[Gary 50]

5. No constructive role?

How about never sending them another billion dollars or even a nickel. They hate us anyway. Plenty of good uses for those billions here in America. Maybe we could cut the corporate tax rates (ha ha ha).

[kardonb]

10. constructive

just another lesson for us : stay OUT OF THE DAMN NEAR-AND MIDDLE EAST ! Let hem solve their own, self-made troubles . We don't need them . All we get for our efforts to help is a kick in the butt . Not another dime for these folks , period !

[starroute]

6. Easy to say after we've been playing a negative role for 60 years

Or didn't you notice the "Made in USA" label on the tear gas canister in the photo?

[geek tragedy]

7. Easy to say we should make up for past sins.

Harder to say that we should stop digging, and that we can earn only blame.

[starroute]

8. It's "Their country, their fate, their choice" I was objecting to

Do you really think the United States is going to leave Egypt alone to their own choices?

Not if the Israelis have anything to say about it. Not if the Neocons have anything to say about it. ("Iraq is the tactical pivot. Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot. Egypt the prize”.) Not if the geostrategists who worry about things like the Suez Canal have anything to say about it.

I agree with you that we should "stop digging," but I think it's naive to assume we might actually do so. The most likely outcome I see is one where we pretend in public to wash our hands of Egypt's problems while covertly continuing to intervene in every way we know how -- all the way up to attempting to restore the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

[geek tragedy]

9. Well, of course we won't, but we should leave them alone to sink or swim. nt

[dipsydoodle]

2. The report I saw

said that the Bro when asked if they had been invited to attend a meeting said "no and we wouldn't have gone anyway".

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. Imagine if Liberals in this country actually had a say in our foreign policy.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Those Tamarud people are pretty full of themselves.

They're pretty good at street demonstrations, economic sabotage, and overthrowing elected governments.

But can they do anything constructive?

[elleng]

11. Analysis of events in Egypt lately:

http://mcherifbassiouni.com/media/Egypt_Update_No._20.pdf

[AngryAmish]

12. THat is some real sweet diplomatic work there, Lou.