Washington Wants Deep Relations with Egypt

US State Department confirmed its desire to establish deep relationships with the new democratic government in Egypt. This came in a press statement by the State Department after a meeting between Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Sameh Shoukry on 27/2/2012.

This meeting came in the context of the commitment of the two countries to find a solution to the issue of the Americans working with NGOs in Egypt as soon as possible.The statement pointed to the USA support for peaceful democratic transition in Egypt, and its desire to do everything to assist in the success of this process.

For his part, Ambassador Shoukry said he will continue his intensive contacts to maintain the Egyptian-US relations to achieve the interests of the two countries and the Middle East.Meanwhile, Washington repeated its call on Egyptian authorities to lift a travel ban that has been imposed on the Americans involved the foreign-funded NGOs case.

We want to see the travel ban lifted; we want to see our people able to leave the country; we want to see the situation with NGOs, whether they're American, international or Egyptian, normalized and legalized; and we want to get back to the business of a democratic transition in Egypt that we can all support, State Department spokeswoman said.Furthermore, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Egyptian-US relations are very important for both counties.She said she did not want to turn the case of NGOs and the US defendants involved in the foreign financing case into a dramatic confrontation.In an interview with the CNN, Clinton said the case of the NGOs is a problem, adding the United States has problems with many of its friends all over the world and is seeking to solve them.

Clinton said Washington is making contacts with highest levels in the Egyptian government in order to find a solution to this problem.I think we have lot of work to do, she said, adding we would like to support the new Egyptian government and the aspirations of the new Egyptian government. So this issue must be solved.On the other hand, former Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Nabil Fahmi said on Monday 27/2/2012 that Cairo and Washington are facing a real problem over the NGOs saga in Egypt.Speaking to a symposium on Egyptian-US relations, Fahmi said he believes the problem revolves around the lack of enforcing the Egyptian law.

The former regime had neglected the NGOs file completely, Fahmi added.The United States should work towards boosting ties with Egypt for many reasons, he argued, stressing the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is surely on the top of these reasons.The United States would not also want to have an anti-US nation in the Middle East, he added.