Vice President Mike Pence upcoming visit to the Mideast comes at a time of friction between the Trump administration and the Palestinian leadership, posing a dilemma for Arab hosts Egypt and Jordan on how to safeguard their vital ties with … more >
By Jacob Wirtschafter Special to The Washington Times – – Thursday, January 18, 2018
CAIRO — Vice President Mike Pence lands in Cairo for the first leg of his Mideast tour on Saturday with a scaled-back itinerary that reflects a changed Middle East diplomatic landscape in the wake of President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
Notwithstanding the warm personal chemistry established between Mr. Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi, who was one of the first world leaders to visit in the Oval Office in April, Mr. Pence arrives at a time of unusual strain in the bilateral relations, amid popular unhappiness here with some of the Trump administration’s policy shifts in the region.
The abbreviated trip, which also includes stops in Israel and Jordan, could provide a first real gauge of the fallout of Mr. Trump’s Jerusalem move last month, which provoked furious denunciations by the Palestinians and many Arab governments but did not spark widespread violent protests as many had feared.
Many Egyptians argue that the Jerusalem move complicates an already strained joint approach to fighting radical Islamic movements in the region.
“Vice President Pence will not really be welcomed in Egypt,” said Cairo University political scientist Engy Madi. “He was visibly standing behind Trump when he made his Jerusalem announcement. We understand that in Washington, [Mr. Pence] is seen as one of the heroes of this move.”
Ms. Madi said her students were disappointed and astounded by the embassy announcement, at a time when Palestinians were counting on east Jerusalem as the capital of their own future state.
“I tell them that the endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem is against international law,” she said. “What took place last month with the embassy decision was a very backward step.”
Mr. Pence, who postponed the trip last month as Washington was consumed by the endgame of the tax bill fight, has said his Egypt trip would address the shared need to combat terrorism and assist persecuted religious minorities throughout the Middle East.
He was originally scheduled to meet churchgoers in the Palestinian West Bank city of Bethlehem, along with Pope Tawadros II in Cairo, leader of Egypt’s 10 million strong Coptic community, the region’s largest Christian denomination.
But the Palestinian leg of the trip was scrubbed following the Jerusalem embassy decision. Then the Coptic cleric said he could not meet Mr. Pence after his Muslim counterpart Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Egypt’s most important Islamic seminary, rebuked Washington for tilting so heavily toward Israel.
“How can I sit with those who gave what they do not own to those who are undeserving?” asked Mr. el-Tayeb.
The embassy relocation dispute is just one of a number of points of contention between Washington and Cairo.
In November, the el-Sissi government signed a pact with Moscow to allow Russian military planes to use its bases — even while continuing to collect billions in security assistance from the U.S.
American diplomats say Egypt has rejected Pentagon offers of counterinsurgency training to deal with the Islamic State threat on the Sinai Peninsula, even as attacks have spread to Coptic Churches and security targets in the Nile Valley.
Meanwhile, Russia has deployed special operations forces on Egypt’s border with Libya and joined Cairo in an embrace of General Khalifa Haftar, who leads an army often at odds with the U.N.-endorsed government in the divided country.
“There has not been a tilt toward Moscow,” said Magda Shahin a former Egyptian diplomat and current director of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Cairo. “What there has been is an effort to balance our strategic ties between the Americans, the Europeans, the Russians. The fluctuations and reversals in American policy show why we look for an equilibrium between the different powers.”
Last month’s visit to Cairo by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his summit with Mr. el-Sissi resulted in deal for a nuclear power plant built by the Russian firm Rusatom. In October, Russian state petroleum firm Rosneft moved to acquire a 30 percent stake in Egypt’s Zohr field, the largest gas deposit in the Mediterranean Sea.
Russo-Egyptian economic and political ties are at their warmest level since the early 1970s, analysts here say.
“There is now a convergence of views between Russia and Egypt on several regional issues, especially the situation in Syria and Libya,” said Bassam Rady, Mr. el-Sissi’s spokesman.