Trump, Welcoming Egypt’s Sisi, Says ‘We Agree on So Many Things’

By Felicia Schwartz – WSJ – 

Focus in relationship with Cairo shifts toward security matters.

President Donald Trump provided a boost to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Monday, giving him a warm welcome to the White House as his administration shifts the U.S. focus in its relationship with Cairo away from human rights while emphasizing security cooperation.

The visit appeared to go well for the Egyptian leader: He received coveted photos posing with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office and walking down the White House colonnade, while neither Mr. Trump nor White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made any public mention of Egypt’s spotty human rights record.

“The president recognizes…that’s best discussed privately,” Mr. Spicer said. “I’m not going to get into what they discussed privately. But I will tell you we understand the concern and I think those are the kinds of things that I think progress is made privately.”

Mr. Trump praised Mr. Sisi throughout the day, saying that he has “done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation” as they sat side by side in the Oval Office.

“We agree on so many things,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office Monday, as he sat beside Mr. Sisi on what was the Egyptian leader’s first official visit to Washington. “You have a great friend and ally in the United States and in me.”

Mr. Sisi said he has deep appreciation for Mr. Trump’s “unique personality” and praised the American president’s efforts to counter what Mr. Sisi described as an evil ideology that is “terrorizing innocent people.” Mr. Sisi said Egypt will always be a “strong partner” in confronting terrorism.

“We will do that together, we will fight terrorism and other things,” Mr. Trump said. “I look forward to a very long and strong relationship.”

The visit marked a step forward for Mr. Sisi, analysts said.

“He has longed for a big hug from Washington as a sign of his broadening international legitimacy and he got that today,” said Eric Trager, an Egypt expert at The Washington Institute. “The key question moving forward is whether Trump can translate this big hug for Sisi into better and deeper cooperation with Egypt.”

In a meeting in the Cabinet Room, where Mr. Trump was joined by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, White House strategist Steve Bannon and other senior administration officials, Mr. Trump nodded to U.S. concerns with Egypt’s human rights abuses. Experts and former officials say the human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated over the past several years.

“We have many things in common; we have a few things we don’t agree on,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Spicer said later Monday that Mr. Trump and Mr. Sisi’s meetings on Monday were a “candid dialogue in which they discussed areas of cooperation and concern.”

In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump also said that as he seeks closer ties with Egypt, the U.S. is boosting its own military.

“We are building up our military to a level that will be the highest, probably the highest that we’ve ever had.” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump is seeking to significantly boost the Pentagon’s budget while cutting State Department spending.

Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. military and foreign aid, getting about $1.5 billion a year. The Trump administration’s budget blueprint doesn’t guarantee aid to Egypt, and State Department officials have said aid to every country, except Israel, is under review.

Also on Mr. Trump’s agenda for the meeting was a discussion of the Middle East peace process, as the Trump administration is seeking to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Mr. Sisi’s trip is the first state visit of an Egyptian leader to Washington since 2009. Mr. Sisi won an election in 2014, several months after the military, then under his command, led a coup to oust Egypt’s first freely elected leader, President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Human rights groups on Monday called on Mr. Trump to press Mr. Sisi to ease up on arbitrary arrests and harsh prison conditions, among other abuses

“As President Sisi visits the White House, his government is overseeing a campaign of repression that flies in the face of American values,” said Maya Foa, a director at international human rights organization Reprieve.

Tens of thousands of people have been imprisoned since Mr. Sisi came to power, including several American citizens.

The most high profile is Aya Hijazi, an American aid worker from Virginia who has been imprisoned for nearly three years on what are widely seen as false charges. Ahead of the visit, White House officials said they would raise her case in a way that they thought would best resolve her plight. It was unclear if Mr. Trump raised Ms. Hijazi’s case with Mr. Sisi during the Monday meetings.

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Photo: President Donald Trump welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to the White House. PHOTO: OLIVIER DOULIERY / POOL/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY