Ambassador touts U.S.-Egyptian bond

Egypt and the United States are in a symbiotic relationship that can help ease tensions between the West and the Middle East, Egyptian ambassador to the United States Nabil Fahmy said yesterday during a lecture in Robertson Hall.

Speaking to a diverse crowd of students, faculty and community members, Fahmy said the United States needs to understand Egypt's role as a global power and a leader of the Middle East. To manage relations in the region constructively, he added, both nations must work together.

"No two countries can bridge the differences between the West and the Middle East better than the U.S. and Egypt," Fahmy said.

For this to happen, Fahmy said, both countries need to change. The United States needs to pay more attention to issues in some subregions of the Middle East, while Egypt needs to become more introspective about possible reforms.

Fahmy denied claims that Egypt's power in the Middle East is diminishing, arguing that other countries in the region are simply increasing their influence and thus closing the gap.

He also addressed the recent arrests of Egyptian news editors for printing articles the government said threatened national security — incidents that have led some to call into question how progressive Egypt's policies on freedom of the press and free speech really are.

Egypt is currently embracing change, Fahmy said, citing reforms the country has passed in the past five years and saying continued amendments are still needed. Fahmy expressed confidence that, in the next five years, Egypt will continue to tailor American principles of progress to its own unique circumstances, once again becoming the clear leader in the Middle East.

Despite his references to interactions between governments, Fahmy said relationships between countries depend more heavily on how each nation's citizens perceive each other. "9/11 did more damage to Arabs and Muslims than [it did to] Americans," he said, referring to biases some U.S. citizens have developed toward Middle Easterners.

Such ethnic prejudices are one aspect of an unprecedented wave of issues threatening the U.S.-Egypt relationship, Fahmy said. He cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. involvement in Iraq and global terrorism as other sources of tension.

Of the Israel-Palestine situation, Fahmy said that Egypt supports outside countries' attempts to help resolve the dispute. Ultimately, he added, it is up to Israel and Palestine to work matters out. "We cannot negotiate for them," he said.

Though Egypt was initially skeptical about America's decision to enter Iraq, it does not support an immediate withdrawal, Fahmy said, since such a move would spark chaos in the region. Instead, Fahmy advocated training local authorities to take control of the country and negotiating with neighboring states.

Wilson School professor Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, said Fahmy's speech highlighted the countries' disagreement about how quickly reforms should happen.

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"I think the tension between the U.S. and Egyptian approaches was made clear by Ambassador Fahmy," Kurtzer said. "The U.S. would like to stimulate various freedoms. The ambassador argued that, if you look at change in Egypt over time, Egypt is moving at its own pace towards the same goal."