Kerry’s arrival in Cairo on March 2 has been greeted with streetriots in several of the country’s cities, which saw one personkilled and dozens injured. The country’s opposition leader, HamdeenSabahi, and his ally, Mohamed ElBaradei, have turned downinvitations to meet with the new US Secretary of the State, due toAmerica’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood.The aim of Kerry’s visit is to persuade Egypt to pass a set ofunpopular reforms in order to qualify for a $4.8 billionInternational Monetary Fund loan package, with the US alsopromising to provide $450 million of financial help of their own toMohamed Morsi’s government because of its promises of economic andpolitical reforms.Geopolitical analyst and author of "Myths, lies and oil wars", F.William Engdahl, believes the US is wrong to cooperate with thecurrent Egyptian authorities as the Muslim Brotherhood has a“dictatorial authoritarian” agenda, with no intention to makedemocratic changes in Egypt.RT: Why have Kerry's calls for a politicalconsensus in Egypt been greeted with protest? Is it not ineveryone's interest to end the turmoil and unrest?F. William Engdahl: Kerry is going to Egypt with an emptybag. He’s demanding Egypt’s Morsi government sign on to the IMFconditions, which means huge subsidy cuts and also big taxincreases that are going to worsen the economic situation – notimprove it. Furthermore, the entire Muslim Brotherhood project,which the Obama administration has backed since the kick-off of theArab Spring that toppled [former Egypt’s president Hosni] Mubarakis spinning out of control. It has no popular base within Egyptiansociety other than the 12 per cent or so of hardcore members of theBrotherhood. And most Egyptians want some kind of a democraticsociety and this is why the opposition has boycotted meeting withKerry on this trip. Washington has a very poor hand of cards toplay in Egypt right now and that what’s being reflected in thisreception, I think. RT: Why is America appearing to side with what theopposition are calling a hardline authoritarian Muslim Government,after its vocal support for democratic change in theregion?FWE: Well, It’s very good question. I think there’s adouble-faced policy in Washington. The backing of the Muslimbrotherhood goes back to the CIA’s role in Egypt back in the 1950swhen they saw the Muslim Brotherhood as a potentially useful toolto put in their bag of organizations that they manipulate aroundthe world. Then they brought the Brotherhood into Saudi Arabia inthe 50s when it was banned in Egypt. And from there the Brotherhoodhas expanded out. Now they’re playing a key role in all thecountries with the Arab Spring. I think some people aroundpresident Obama have the delusion that they could control what’sbasically a political Islamo-fascist movement. It’s not a movementfor democracy by any stretch of the imagination. And that’s whatthis Brotherhood is – it’s a secret society. They have a publicagenda that sounds lovely, and they have a private agenda thatwe’re seeing unfold in Egypt now, with the dictatorialauthoritarian measures that Morsi and Co are advocating. So, Ithink at this point Morsi is in a life and death struggle becausethe popular support is not there for this coup. And Washington isbeginning to get a little bit wobbly on its support for Morsi forthat reason. They are beginning to rethink and that’s one of thereasons for the change between [former Secretary of the State]Hillary Clinton and John Kerry – to bring in a new cast of peopleand see what kind of options there are in Egypt at thispoint. RT: Kind of going down the rabbit hole a little bit here.How does the alleged US support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptmatch up with years of alliance with Israel?FWE: Well, this is a rabbit hole. I think, some people inIsrael, probably, think that they can control elements of theMuslim Brotherhood, although I think increasingly Israel isbecoming very leery of this whole Brotherhood option and feel morecomfortable with a military dictatorship, such as we had underMubarak, maybe with a civilian face. I think that this is what isgradually going to evolve in the region for better or worse. Butthe victims of this, of course, are going to be the Egyptian peopleand the people in the entire region. … Read More
↧