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Kerry Hints That U.S. Would Support New Leader for Iraq Kerry Says U.S. Is Ready to Renew Ties With Egypt
(about 4 hours later)
CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry, visiting Cairo on the first leg of a trip to try to rally Arab support on the Iraq crisis, said on Sunday that it was important for Iraqis to “find leadership” that could bridge the deep sectarian divides in the country, apparently sending a subtle signal that the United States was open to the selection of a new prime minister there. CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled Sunday that the Obama administration was ready to return to business as usual with Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who led last year’s military takeover.
The formal American position, which Mr. Kerry underscored at a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart, is that the United States is not in the business of picking Iraq’s leaders. After a 90-minute meeting with Mr. Sisi, Mr. Kerry said at a news conference here that he had come to reaffirm Washington’s “historic partnership” with Egypt. “We want to see the people of Egypt succeed,” he said, and so he and Mr. Sisi had discussed, “most importantly, our mutual determination for our countries to work together in partnership.”
But without mentioning Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq by name, Mr. Kerry noted that the Kurds, the Sunnis and some Shiites had registered unhappiness with Iraq’s political leadership, as has Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shia spiritual leader who has spoken out about the need to avoid the mistakes of the past in Iraq. Mr. Kerry expressed firm confidence that the United States would soon restore all of the aid to Egypt, including $1.3 billion annually to the military that the Obama administration had partly withheld after the takeover.
“The United States would like to see the Iraqi people find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq,” Mr. Kerry said. “I am absolutely confident we will get on track there,” he said. Addressing a previously suspended shipment of 10 Apache helicopter gunships that the Egyptian military has been especially eager for, Mr. Kerry said he was just as confident “that the Apaches will come, and that they will come very, very soon.”
In recent days, the United States has walked a fine line, stressing that it is not intervening in Iraqi politics, a policy that officials fear might backfire. But privately, many American officials have expressed skepticism that Mr. Maliki is capable of leading a cross-sectarian government. And in Egypt’s economic challenges, Mr. Kerry said, President Obama and the United States are “committed to be helpful.”
In his swing through Middle Eastern capitals this week, Mr. Kerry plans to send two messages on Iraq. One is that Arab states should use their influence to prod Iraqi politicians to form an inclusive government quickly. Three years after Mr. Obama called publicly for President Hosni Mubarak to bow to the Arab Spring uprising demanding his ouster, Mr. Kerry’s remarks appeared to suggest that the administration is now ready to work with another military-backed strongman.
Another is that they should crack down on funding to the Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. The group is largely self-sustaining because of its success with extortions and in the plundering of banks in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which it controls. But some funding “has flowed into Iraq from its neighbors,” a senior official on Mr. Kerry’s plane said. Mr. Sisi won 97 percent of the official votes in a barely contested election last month, and both European and United States-funded observer delegations said it fell short of international standards of democracy. But Mr. Kerry’s comments suggested that the Obama administration was nonetheless ready to end its unsuccessful, yearlong attempt to use a mild threat of an aid cut to push Egypt’s new military-backed government toward reconciliation or reforms.
“That does not mean that it’s the result of an official government policy in many, if not most, cases,” the official added. “But it does mean that some of these governments can do more to stop some of that facilitation.” Mr. Kerry tacitly acknowledged the administration’s criticisms of the new government’s authoritarian record, including its heavy-handed crackdown on both the Islamist opposition and liberal or leftist dissenters. “I emphasized also our strong support for upholding the universal rights and freedoms of all Egyptians, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” he said.
The United States still had work to do in Baghdad, too. Mr. Kerry said they had talked about the verdict expected Monday in the case of three journalists who have been jailed since December on politicized charges without any publicly disclosed evidence of a crime. And he said they had also talked about the hurried mass trials that had handed death sentences to more than a dozen senior leaders of the Islamist opposition and hundreds of their supporters, arousing horrified alarms from Western governments and rights groups.
President Obama announced last week that he was planning to send as many as 300 military advisers to help Iraqi forces counter ISIS. But the legal protections they would have for this mission are still being worked out. He also alluded to the government’s criminalization of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group whose party dominated the recent free elections but has since been excluded from politics. “There is no question that Egyptian society is stronger when all of its citizens have a say and a stake in its success,” Mr. Kerry said.
The advisers would not have the standard immunity that is granted to diplomats and military officers assigned to the American Embassy in Baghdad. And the Obama administration is not planning to go through the time-consuming process of negotiating a status-of-forces agreement that would provide legal immunity. But he noted sympathetically that Mr. Sisi had held the formal title of president for just days (although in truth Mr. Sisi has been the government’s paramount decision-maker since he led the military takeover). Sounding hopeful, Mr. Kerry said that the new president “gave me a very strong sense of his commitment” to “a re-evaluation of human rights legislation” and “a re-evaluation of the judicial process.”
“Exactly what form those legal protections will take, I think, is something that we are working out,” said the official on Mr. Kerry’s plane, who could not be identified, in accordance with the State Department’s protocol for briefing reporters. “There are a range of ways in which to do this, but I don’t know that the exact modality in this case has been settled on yet.” Mr. Kerry visited Cairo on Sunday on the first leg of a trip to try to rally Arab support on the Iraq crisis, and on that subject he appeared to step up the United States’ efforts to pressure Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq to share or give up power.
Mr. Kerry is the highest-ranking American official to visit Cairo since the election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as president last month, and his arrival followed a June 10 phone call by Mr. Obama to the Egyptian leader. But in Cairo, his words for President Sisi were notably warmer, marking a milestone that Egyptian officials have awaited with increasing impatience since the military takeover that ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
A second official on the secretary’s plane said that during his short visit here, Mr. Kerry would make the point that it was in Egyptian political and economic interests to build a more inclusive government. Senior Egyptian officials have said all along that they expected the Obama administration’s scolding to blow over and full aid to resume. In a television interview during his three-week campaign, Mr. Sisi acknowledged that American laws complicated the matter by mandating a cutoff after a military takeover.
“We do not share the view of the Egyptian government about links between the Muslim Brothers and terrorist groups,” the official said, referring to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that backed the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, and was outlawed after the military takeover last summer. “With regard to the challenge that the Muslim Brothers pose, I would characterize it more as a political challenge than a security challenge. “ But he said that he had told United States officials, “Look at us with Egyptian eyes” and “don’t apply your culture, your regimes and your development,” and he predicted that after the election, relations would improve.
There has been growing concern over the jailing of journalists in Egypt and the government’s crackdown on political opponents, including mass trials in which judges have handed out death sentences by the hundreds. In Washington, influential senators are still threatening to block a full restoration of aid unless Egypt shows it is taking steps toward open democracy. The State Department has continued to raise concerns about the government’s crackdown. United States officials continue to dispute the Egyptian government’s assertion that Mr. Morsi’s supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood are violent terrorists behind a wave of revenge attacks against soldiers and the police.
While the second American official asserted that there had been a few “flickering” signs of improvement, he acknowledged that “key concerns remain.” “We do not share the view of the Egyptian government about links between the Muslim Brothers and terrorist groups,” said a senior official who traveled here on Mr. Kerry’s plane. “We do not have information that would substantiate that link.”
The United States provides about $1.3 billion in military assistance to Egypt each year, which is subject to congressional restrictions. To provide American financing for arms programs, Mr. Kerry must certify that Egypt has a “strategic relationship” with the United States and is upholding its peace treaty with Israel. The administration believes “the Egyptian government needs to have a very politically inclusive approach, which means that they need to include and find ways to reach out to the Muslim Brothers,” the official said.
Mr. Kerry made such a certification in April, and the Obama administration has sought to provide the first tranche of that financing — some $650 million — to sustain the existing contract and support border security and counterterrorism programs. Congress temporarily put a hold on the financing, but eventually $572 million was released. Mr. Kerry — whose unscripted remarks have sometimes sounded more sympathetic to the military takeover than the State Department’s prepared statements — no longer says publicly, as he did last year, that the Egyptian military was “restoring democracy” when it deposed Mr. Morsi, the nation’s first freely elected president.
During his visit to Cairo, Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Sisi, along with the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry; civil society leaders; and the head of the Arab League. The day before Mr. Kerry arrived, riot police officers with tear gas and clubs had worked in tandem with plainclothes supporters throwing bricks and bottles to break up a march by liberal groups demanding only the right to demonstrate; dozens were arrested.
During his nearly weeklong trip, Mr. Kerry is scheduled to make other stops in the Middle East and Europe. But in his news conference on Sunday, Mr. Kerry nonetheless described a meeting of the minds. “I think we really found ourselves on a similar page of changes that have yet to be made, promises that have yet to be fulfilled,” he said of his meeting with Mr. Sisi, adding that there was “a serious sense of purpose and commitment by both of us to try to help achieve those goals.”