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Ex-US official praises Egypt’s anti-terror policies

September 25, 2018 at 4:06 pm

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi [Egyptian President Office/Apaimages]

Policies adopted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to combat terror are very useful, according to former US National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane.

McFarlane told Egyptian satellite channel DMC that his country should support Cairo in its fight against terror.

He mentioned an initiative in the US Congress that aims to lift procedures which allow for withholding or blocking US military aid to Egypt if it does not meet certain conditions pertaining to the country’s human rights and democratisation records.

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He added that he hopes those procedures would be lifted so there would be no delay in Egypt’s purchase of US arms and military equipment.

Meanwhile, Egyptian and international human rights organisations have been repeatedly criticising authorities’ crackdown on opponents. Last week, Amnesty International said that the “unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression” has turned the country into an “open-air prison”.

Human Rights Watch described Egyptian security forces’ violent dispersal of a 2013 pro-democracy protest camp as a “massacre” in which more than 800 protesters were killed.