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Summary:
This report provides an overview of Egyptian politics and current issues in U.S.Egyptian relations. It briefly provides a political history of modern Egypt, an overview of its political institutions, and a discussion of the prospects for democratization in Egypt. This report will be updated regularly. U.S. policy toward Egypt is aimed at maintaining regional stability, improving bilateral relations, continuing military cooperation, and sustaining the March 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Successive Administrations have long viewed Egypt's leaders as a moderating influence in the Middle East, though in recent years, there have been increasing U.S. calls for Egypt to democratize. Congressional views of U.S.-Egyptian relations vary. Many lawmakers view Egypt as a stabilizing force in the region, but some Members would like the United States to pressure Egypt to implement political reforms, improve its human rights record, and take a more active role in reducing Arab-Israeli tensions. Egypt and the United States agree on the importance of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the need to continue current Arab-Israel peace talks. Egypt attended the recent peace conference in Annapolis and responded positively to the meeting. In 2005, Egypt sent 750 Egyptian soldiers to the Egypt-Gaza border in order to prevent weapons smuggling following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip would seem to pose a challenge for Egypt and its border security efforts. The United States has provided Egypt with an annual average of over $2 billion in economic and military foreign assistance since 1979. The United States is to reduce Economic Support Funds (ESF) to about $400 million per year by FY2008 in keeping with a plan to reduce economic aid to both Israel and Egypt. The Administration requested $415 million in economic grants and $1.3 billion in military grants for FY2008 for Egypt. The House version of the FY2008 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill (H.R. 2764) would withhold $200 million in Foreign Military Financing assistance (FMF) for Egypt until the Secretary of State certifies that Egypt has taken concrete steps toward implementing a new judicial authority law that protects the independence of the judiciary; reviewing criminal procedures and train police leadership in modern policing to curb police abuses; and detecting and destroying the smuggling network and smuggling tunnels that lead from Egypt to Gaza. The Senate version of the bill, contains an amendment that could significantly alter the way the United States provides economic aid to Egypt in the future. S.Amdt. 2726, entitled "The United States-Egypt Friendship Endowment," would provide up to $500 million in ESF to establish an endowment to "further social, economic and political reforms in Egypt." Some analysts believe that the proposed endowment, which reportedly would be matched by the Egyptian government on a dollar-for-dollar basis, would serve as a substitute for the annual appropriations process and shield Egypt from potential conditionality agreements mandated by Congress.
