An embarrassed Egyptian security official said they were chanting “Monica, Monica” and “Irhal, Clinton” (Get out, Clinton.) Tomatoes, shoes and a water bottle were thrown at part of Clinton’s motorcade as it pulled up, protected by riot police, although a US official said Clinton’s own vehicle was not hit. – AFP
Secretary Clinton meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem on July 16, 2012.
(via State Dept.)
IT WOULD NEVER have happened under Hosni Mubarak.
U.S. foreign policy after the dawning of the Arab Spring received its review in Egypt when Secy. Hillary Clinton visited the country to reopen the U.S. consulate, closed in 1993. Christian citizens believe the U.S. aided the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power, because American policy bankrolled Pres. Mubarak for decades.
The response to this was to humiliate Clinton, as she attempted to implement Pres. Obama’s policy.
Clinton’s own reaction when Mubarak’s reign was threatened was slow to shift, as I mention in my book, as she took one for the Obama team when Egypt’s uprising began:
“Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.” — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, January 25, 2011
Tony Blair better stay out of Egypt, because his assessment of Mubarak when the uprising started was to say he’d been “immensely courageous and a force for good.”
U.S. aid to Egypt is $1.3 billion.
It’s hard to imagine anything more humbling for Secy. Clinton, whose statement on the new American policy in the 21s century landed on deaf ears: “I want to be clear that the United States is not in the business, in Egypt, of choosing winners and losers, even if we could, which, of course, we cannot.”
Remarks With Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr
QUESTION: (Via interpreter.) Mohamad Soliman from Nile News. You say that the U.S. supports the democratic transition in Egypt, but some believe that some statements made by U.S. officials have a negative impact on efforts to reach consensus among the various Egyptian parties. What’s your comment to that?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we do support the democratic transition, but we know that it is for Egyptians to decide your way forward. And what we have tried to do, President Obama and I, is to stress democracy is hard. We have been at this for more than 236 years, and it requires dialogue and compromise and real politics. So we are encouraged, and we want to be helpful, but we know that it is not for the United States to decide. It is for the Egyptian people to decide, and we will continue to support the Egyptian people making these decisions in the best way that we can.
MS. NULAND: On the U.S. side, Reuters, Arshad Mohammed, please.
QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, do you regret in retrospect that successive American administrations supported the Mubarak government, which for so many years repressed and sought to marginalize the Muslim Brotherhood, including at times imprisoning President Morsi, whom you just met? And secondly, did President Morsi raise with you the case of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the cleric who is in prison in the United States? And if so, what was your response?
SECRETARY CLINTON: The answer to the second question is no.
Answer to the first question is we worked with the government of the country at the time. We work with governments around the world. We agree with some of them; we disagree with others of them. We were consistent in promoting human rights and speaking out for an end to the emergency law, an end to political prisoners being detained. So I think you have to put this in context.
The United States has relations with every nation in the world, and we stand for democracy and human rights, but it’s not always easy for countries to transition from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones. Sometimes it’s very bloody, with great loss. Egypt took a different path, and we now are doing all we can to support the democratically elected government and to help make it a success in delivering results for the people of Egypt.
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