Cairo: After months of rapprochement between Egypt’s ruing Muslim Brotherhood and the US, ties between the two countries are likely to be strained by recent violent protests in Cairo at an American-made film mocking Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), according to analysts.
“The US is expected to take measures against what it sees as the Brotherhood’s attempts to please radicals in Egypt,” said Emad Jad, a political expert at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies.
Following attempts by angry Egyptians to storm the US embassy in Cairo last week, President Barack Obama said the US does not see Egypt as an ally or an enemy.
“I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident,” Obama said in an television interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo.
“Certainly in this situation, what we’re going to expect is that [the Egyptian government is] responsive to our insistence that our embassy is protected, our personnel is protected, and if they take actions that they’re not taking those responsibilities, as all countries do where we have embassies, I think that’s going to be a real big problem,” added Obama.
During the security breach of the US embassy in Cairo, protesters waved a black banner of Al Qaida and portraits of Osama Bin Laden.
“Obama’s statement signals a US review of relations with Egypt,” Jad told Gulf News.
Egypt gets $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) in annual aid from the US. Egypt was a major regional ally of the US under former president Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in an uprising more than a yar ago.
According to Jad, the US may become sluggish in supporting Egypt’s request for an unprecedented $4.8 billiion loan from the IMF to prop up its troubled economy.
“The Obama administration is facing a problem in a presidential election for having supported the Muslim Brotherhood despite criticism from US rightists,” said Jad. “The Obama administration will have to prove that it is able to protect US interests.”
Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi, who hails from the Brotherhood, is due in New York later this month to attend the annual General Assembly. It is not clear yet if Mursi, who took office in June, will also go to Washington.
Mursi, apparently in pain to assert his Islamist credentials, condemned the anti-Islam film, but said attacks on embassies were “unacceptable”.
“Obama’s statement [on Egypt] reflects his current worries as he is engaged in a battle for re-election,” Rakha Ahmad, a former diplomat, said. “His remarks were an emotional talk affected by the killing of the US ambassador in Libya, and his Republican rival’s criticism,” he added.
Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi on Tuesday.
However, Ahmad ruled out serious deterioration in the Cairo-Washington relations.
“Both countries share major cooperation shown in joint military manoeuvres and economic links. The US is unprepared to lose these relations,” he added.
