Kerry in Egypt 'with a poor hand of cards' as IMF money mean cuts and tax increases
The US bet their money on the wrong horse by backing the ‘undemocratic’ Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl told RT, adding that the IMF loan for which Washington is pushing, will make people’s life even harder in Egypt.
Kerry’s arrival in Cairo on March 2 has been greeted with street
riots in several of the country’s cities, which saw one person
killed and dozens injured. The country’s opposition leader, Hamdeen
Sabahi, and his ally, Mohamed ElBaradei, have turned down
invitations to meet with the new US Secretary of the State, due to
America’s backing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The aim of Kerry’s visit is to persuade Egypt to pass a set of
unpopular reforms in order to qualify for a $4.8 billion
International Monetary Fund loan package, with the US also
promising to provide $450 million of financial help of their own to
Mohamed Morsi’s government because of its promises of economic and
political reforms.
Geopolitical analyst and author of "Myths, lies and oil wars", F.
William Engdahl, believes the US is wrong to cooperate with the
current Egyptian authorities as the Muslim Brotherhood has a
“dictatorial authoritarian” agenda, with no intention to make
democratic changes in Egypt.
RT:Why have Kerry's calls for a political
consensus in Egypt been greeted with protest? Is it not in
everyone's interest to end the turmoil and unrest?
F. William Engdahl: Kerry is going to Egypt with an empty
bag. He’s demanding Egypt’s Morsi government sign on to the IMF
conditions, which means huge subsidy cuts and also big tax
increases that are going to worsen the economic situation – not
improve it. Furthermore, the entire Muslim Brotherhood project,
which the Obama administration has backed since the kick-off of the
Arab Spring that toppled [former Egypt’s president Hosni] Mubarak
is spinning out of control. It has no popular base within Egyptian
society other than the 12 per cent or so of hardcore members of the
Brotherhood. And most Egyptians want some kind of a democratic
society and this is why the opposition has boycotted meeting with
Kerry on this trip. Washington has a very poor hand of cards to
play in Egypt right now and that what’s being reflected in this
reception, I think.
RT:Why is America appearing to side with what the
opposition are calling a hardline authoritarian Muslim Government,
after its vocal support for democratic change in the
region?
FWE: Well, It’s very good question. I think there’s a
double-faced policy in Washington. The backing of the Muslim
brotherhood goes back to the CIA’s role in Egypt back in the 1950s
when they saw the Muslim Brotherhood as a potentially useful tool
to put in their bag of organizations that they manipulate around
the world. Then they brought the Brotherhood into Saudi Arabia in
the 50s when it was banned in Egypt. And from there the Brotherhood
has expanded out. Now they’re playing a key role in all the
countries with the Arab Spring. I think some people around
president Obama have the delusion that they could control what’s
basically a political Islamo-fascist movement. It’s not a movement
for democracy by any stretch of the imagination. And that’s what
this Brotherhood is – it’s a secret society. They have a public
agenda that sounds lovely, and they have a private agenda that
we’re seeing unfold in Egypt now, with the dictatorial
authoritarian measures that Morsi and Co are advocating. So, I
think at this point Morsi is in a life and death struggle because
the popular support is not there for this coup. And Washington is
beginning to get a little bit wobbly on its support for Morsi for
that reason. They are beginning to rethink and that’s one of the
reasons for the change between [former Secretary of the State]
Hillary Clinton and John Kerry – to bring in a new cast of people
and see what kind of options there are in Egypt at this
point.
RT: Kind of going down the rabbit hole a little bit here.
How does the alleged US support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
match up with years of alliance with Israel?
FWE: Well, this is a rabbit hole. I think, some people in
Israel, probably, think that they can control elements of the
Muslim Brotherhood, although I think increasingly Israel is
becoming very leery of this whole Brotherhood option and feel more
comfortable with a military dictatorship, such as we had under
Mubarak, maybe with a civilian face. I think that this is what is
gradually going to evolve in the region for better or worse. But
the victims of this, of course, are going to be the Egyptian people
and the people in the entire region.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.