CAIRO, 13 August 2007 — Egypt yesterday criticized what it called US interference in its internal affairs after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined a growing chorus of American criticism of Cairo’s human rights record.
“Despite the solidity of Egyptian-American relations, Egypt doesn’t think that allows anyone — even the United States — to interfere in its internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.
The US “has become more conscious of this reality, even if press statements by certain senior administration officials, including the secretary of state, could give the opposite impression,” he said.
Rice said on Aug. 2 that she had expressed her disappointment to President Hosni Mubarak over an Egyptian court’s decision to keep opposition leader Ayman Nour behind bars despite his ailing health.
Amid growing criticism of Egypt’s rights record, the US House of Representatives voted in June to withhold $200 million in military aid until Cairo took certain steps, including improving human rights.
Meanwhile, Egypt has ordered two Culture Ministry officials to be held for a further 15 days to probe allegations they took bribes for a multimillion-dollar restoration project in Cairo, a judicial source said yesterday. The allegations against Ayman Abdel Monem, in charge of a huge restoration project in Islamic Cairo, and Ahmed Hussein, who heads another project in Upper Egypt, have rocked the Egyptian art scene.
The pair were arrested on Thursday following allegations from three contractors who claimed to have paid bribes to secure contracts worth around five million euros (seven million dollars), the source said.
The three men also said they had given the pair a car and built a Mediterranean villa for Adel Monem. For around six years, Abdel Monem has been supervising the restoration of Cairo’s old Islamic quarter, which UNESCO included in its list of world heritage sites in 1979.
The project involves the restoration of some 150 mosques, caravansaries, fortifications and other sites.
