Former Minster Ahmed Maher Discusses the Egyptian American Relations
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Alexandria—the BA Dialogue Forum hosted on Saturday, 21 April 2007, Ahmed Maher, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, to speak in a seminar about " Egyptian American Relations", chaired by Ambassador Ali Maher, Director, BA Institute for Peace Studies.
Minister Ahmed Maher started his talk by referring to the divergence of the Egyptian American relations, which is the case among most medium size and large countries. He described the Egyptian American relations as strong and divergent. He added that these relations witness periods of intimacy and others of separation which is natural, as we can not imagine that USA and Egypt would become identical.
He tackled the negative aspects in the history of Egyptian American relations, with started when the US government used the American aid as a tool to pressure Egypt. He stressed that the USA benefited from the aid given to Egypt. He said that the Egyptian government is keen to maintain relations with the USA, as well as with Asia and Europe, so as to balance relations with countries all over the world.
He stated that the relation with Israel has been a main touchstone formulating the Egyptian American relations, and led to more strained relations. The USA has become always in favor of Israel, when Egypt defeated Israel in 1973 War, the USA strongly supported Israel.
As for the Iraqi Issue, Ahmed Maher said that the Iraqi invasion is completely unjustified, and that King Abdullah of Jordon stated days ago that the war on Iraq is an illegitimate occupation, especially after unveiling the main reason behind the invasion, which is to weaken the Arab power.
Maher rejected the term "war on terrorism" as he thinks it negatively affects the Egyptian American relations, he said he would rather us the term "fighting terrorism". Egypt suffered a lot from terrorism, and he stressed that the entire world needs to define who are the actual terrorists.
At the end of the seminar, Ahmed Maher answered several questions raised by the audience on the Egyptian American relations, as well as other critical issues.