CAIRO - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that she had released 100 million dollars in aid to Egypt that had been made conditional on doing more to prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Rice told journalists in Cairo that she had exercised her waiver right to free up the funds which the US Congress froze in January pending action on smuggling tunnels and progress with Egyptian democratic reform.
"I’ve exercised the waiver," she told a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. "We believe that this relationship with Egypt is an important one and that the waiver was the right thing to do."
She made no mention of what progress Egypt had made but stressed "the importance that the United States attaches to democracy and reform in Egypt and the importance that we attach to progress on those fronts."
The aid freeze created a furore in Egypt, with Abul Gheit repeatedly rejecting conditions being placed on US aid. Egypt is the second largest recipient of US aid, after Israel, receiving around two billion dollars a year.
Egypt frequently announces the discovery of arms caches in the Sinai peninsula as well as tunnels used by the militants.
However, the Israelis have frequently complained that Egypt is failing to do enough to stem the flow of arms into the impoverished coastal strip which has been controlled by Islamist group Hamas since June 2007.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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I'm not sure why aiding terrorists in Gaza is in our national security interest, but it's only money, and be mean to hold any conditions over Egypt's head, the way Cogress did.
I am really sick and tired of this Bush regime giving away my money to the use and benefit of Mohammedans. Sadly, with McCain we can only expect more of the same, likely with Obama too, though I suppose that remains to be seen. An argument can be made that the Mohammedans haven’t bought and paid for Obama yet like they have with McCain. Of course, it can also perhaps be argued that given his past, Obama will support Mohammedanism out of conviction, the same way McCain does communism in Indo-China, for love not money.
Borrow from communists to give to muslims, again.