The U.S. State Department on Tuesday approved a sprawling $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt even as the Biden administration continues to https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/14/dismaying-human-rights-groups-blast-biden-plan-ok-millions-military-aid-egypt" rel="nofollow - withhold a far smaller sum of military aid—$130 million—over expressed concerns about human rights abuses by the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a disconnect that critics said makes a mockery of U.S. leaders' rhetoric.
Authorized on the 11th anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the weapons sale includes 12 Super Hercules C-130 transport aircraft as well as https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/egypt-air-defense-radar-systems" rel="nofollow - $355 million worth of air defense radar systems. "Nothing says 'the U.S. doesn't care about your government's oppression' quite like announcing $2.5 billion in arms sales to Egypt on the anniversary of the January 25 Revolution," Ben Freeman, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, https://twitter.com/BenFreemanDC/status/1486099592076836876" rel="nofollow - wrote in response to the news.
Andrew Stroehlein, European Media director for Human Rights Watch, https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1486306250132500484" rel="nofollow - said the Biden administration is "encouraging and assisting Egypt's torturers" by moving to funnel more arms to the https://dawnmena.org/eight-years-after-al-sisis-coup-eight-broken-promises/" rel="nofollow - authoritarian al-Sisi regime .
In September, as Common Dreams https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/14/dismaying-human-rights-groups-blast-biden-plan-ok-millions-military-aid-egypt" rel="nofollow - reported , Biden administration officials announced their decision to provide Egypt with $170 million in military aid while withholding $130 million until the regime meets certain "human rights criteria," including ending its https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/08/biden-accused-of-u-turn-over-egypts-human-rights-abuses" rel="nofollow - crackdown on political dissidents and activists. Egypt was given a January 30, 2022 deadline to comply with the administration's conditions.
"If human rights were truly the center of our foreign policy, we wouldn’t be selling nearly $1.2 billion in weapons to one of the worst human rights abusers in the world," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1437797467836358661" rel="nofollow - tweeted at the time, referring to earlier U.S. arms arrangements with Egypt.
During a https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-25-2022/" rel="nofollow - press briefing on Tuesday, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee pushed State Department spokesperson Ned Price on the seeming incoherence of withholding $130 million on human rights grounds while greenlighting a massive sale of high-tech weaponry to the same brutal regime.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-approves-25-billion-arms-sale-egypt-despite-horrific-rights-abuses