US allocates Egyptian aid to other countries

The United States has redirected aid worth more than $100 million previously allocated to Egypt to other countries, Al-Monitor revealed this week.

In a report, Al-Monitor said that the American aid was shifted to other countries during the first quarter of this year, noting that Congressmen officially asked the US State Department to turn some of Egypt’s fund to Tunisia to boost its fragile democracy.

The website reported unnamed officials in the US Department of State saying: “The US government redirected $108 million in planned assistance funding from Egypt to other countries due to continued government of Egypt process delays that have impeded the effective implementation of several programmes.”

The officials stated that “these funds have been redirected according to other priorities and needs.”

In 2015, an official US report said that $460 million identified as economic assistance to Egypt remained unspent due to US restrictions and Egyptian red tape.

The American news website noted that in late May, eight US Congressmen wrote to the Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to shift up to $20 million in Egyptian aid to Tunisia.

“Tunisia recently established a democratically elected parliament and accomplished the region’s first peaceful transfer of executive power,” the letter stated. “At such a critical moment, the United States should make a serious effort to support this nascent democracy.”

Meanwhile, the same website reported the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri saying that the Congress’ request to half the American assistance to Egypt contradicts the outcomes of the Egyptian-American understandings and the nature of the mutual relations.