FLUSHED with success he may be, but Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi should know there is no guarantee that the praise Donald Trump heaped upon him will translate itself into more American aid. At the White House on Monday, the American president went overboard in welcoming the Egyptian strongman and said Mr Sisi should know that he would find “a great friend and ally” in the United States, because Mr Sisi was doing “a fantastic job in a very difficult situation”. What exactly is the “fantastic job” Mr Sisi is doing? There is no doubt Egypt, too, faces a terrorist challenge from the militant Islamic State group in the Sinai and obviously needs support from the world community, including, of course, the superpower. But there is nothing “fantastic” about it, for Egypt’s terrorism challenge is far less severe than what many other Middle Eastern nations have been facing. Mr Sisi’s regime is guilty of gross human rights violations, including the crackdown on dissidents, following the overthrow of Egypt’s first elected government headed by Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since that unconstitutional seizure of power, Mr Sisi has held bogus elections to have himself ‘elected’ president. This sabotage of the Arab Spring doesn’t seem to attract President Trump’s attention, and all he could say by way of criticism was that he and Mr Sisi had “a few things” on which they do not agree — these “few things” included Egypt’s 40,000 political prisoners.

What actually has endeared Mr Sisi to the US president is the former’s virtual abandonment of Egypt’s role in the Palestinian question. Throughout last century, Egypt had played a key role in the Arab awakening, especially during the Nasser era, but Mr Sisi’s abandonment of this role is a tragedy for the Arab world. However, as US officials have hinted, there is no guarantee of more American money for Egypt, because the Trump administration has decided on a 28.7pc cut in the State Department budget.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2017