Trump's worried Arab allies shift sights to victorious Biden

"Why all this fear and panic over Biden's win?" celebrated Egyptian TV anchor Amr Adib said the other day. "Egypt has no problem about his win. Neither Biden is Obama nor is Egypt in 2020 the same as Egypt in 2013. Egypt is a strong ally of the U.S.," Adib said on his show on the privately owned satellite TV MBC Masr.

In 2013, relations soured between Egypt and the administration of Barack Obama after the Egyptian army, then led by current President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, deposed Egypt's first democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi, a senior official in the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Thousands of Islamist and secular opposition figures have since been rounded up in Egypt. Rights groups have repeatedly accused Egypt of massive human rights abuses and muzzling dissent, claims that Sisi's government has denied.

Over the past few days, several pro-government media outlets in Egypt have highlighted the alleged support by the Obama administration to the Muslim Brotherhood, and predicted renewed pressure by the Biden administration on Washington's Arab allies to boost human rights in their countries. Biden, who served as Obama's vice president, has vowed a tougher policy on human rights and democracy.

 

Outgoing President Donald Trump, who has yet to concede, has forged strong links with several Arab governments, including Egypt, deemed by detractors as oppressive.

Sisi was on Saturday the first Arab leader to congratulate Biden, saying he looks forward to working with him to enhance "strategic relations" between the two countries.

Some analysts see no good reason for worries about the potential impacts of a shift in U.S. policy toward Egypt.

"When the Americans decided to co-operate with the Muslim Brotherhood after 2011, it was because the Brotherhood was the only organised power in Egypt," Moatez Abdel-Fattah, a political science professor at Cairo University, said. He was referring to a 2011 popular uprising that toppled Egypt's long-time autocrat Hosny Mubarak and gave the Islamist group its first taste of power.

"Biden is not an ideologist. He will look for areas of co-operation with Egypt. He needs allies," Abdel-Fattah said.  However, he called on the Egyptian government to ease political restrictions.

"We need to reconsider laws placing curbs on the civil society, ensure pluralistic elections and boost freedom of expression," he said.

Street demonstrations are heavily restricted in Egypt under a contested 2013 law that the government said was necessary to restore stability to the country. Sisi has repeatedly warned Egyptians against protests, saying that they could lead to chaos. [embed:render:embedded:node:14414]

All but one of Trump's Arab allies have followed in Sisi's footsteps and congratulated Biden on his election win. They included leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, two Gulf countries that signed historic U.S.-brokered deals to normalise ties with Israel.

"The UAE and USA are friends and allies with a strong historic partnership that we look forward to strengthening together," the Emirati de facto ruler Mohammed bin Zayed tweeted in English late Friday. Saudi Arabia, a major Gulf ally of Trump, was the last major Middle East state to react to Biden's win.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, was the venue of Trump's first foreign trip as a president in 2017 when he struck multi-billion-dollar deals with the oil-wealthy monarchy. Riyadh has also backed Trump's maximalist policy on Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival.  

Trump's close ties with Saudi leaders are believed to have eased pressure on Riyadh after the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, in a Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018. A Saudi court charged eight low-ranking officials in connection with his death. U.S. intelligence officials, however, have said that powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely ordered the journalist's murder, a claim that Riyadh has denied.  

During his campaign, Biden promised as president to halt U.S. support for a years-long war in Yemen where Saudi Arabia is leading a military alliance fighting Iran-linked Houthi rebels. But some experts ruled out a fraying of US-Saudi ties after Biden takes office.

"Relations between countries are not based on election statements," said Saad bin Omar, the head of the Arab Century for Studies, a think tank based in Riyadh.

"Saudi-U.S. relations are a major pillar of the world order, given Saudi Arabia's Arab and Islamic weight and its economic prowess in stabilising the global energy market," he told Saudi newspaper Sabq. "Co-operation between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. is indispensable for stability of the Middle East and the world," he added.    (dpa)