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Egypt ripped at Senate foreign aid hearing

Senators urged to rethink $1.5 billion annual US aid package to Egypt as the country fails to progress in human rights.
Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism hearing about Russian election interference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. March 15, 2017.  REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein - RTX316TR
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A bipartisan panel of experts ripped Egypt as a floundering authoritarian state April 25 and urged Congress to rethink its annual $1.5 billion aid package.

The three witnesses at the Senate foreign aid hearing took turns describing Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as a military-run, economic basket case rampant with government-sponsored anti-Americanism. They argued that Egypt has lost the regional influence it had when the United States urged it to make peace with Israel in the late 1970s, making America's generous military assistance both anachronistic and counterproductive.

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