WASHINGTON – The new chairman of the US House’s Middle East subcommittee blasted
the Obama administration on Friday for not taking a tougher line against the
Muslim Brotherhood and its possible inclusion in the next Egyptian
government.
“I think we ought to be very clear that the Muslim
Brotherhood should not be part of a future government in Egypt,” Rep. Steve
Chabot (R-Ohio), 58, told
The Jerusalem Post in his first interview with an
Israeli paper since becoming chairman of the US House Subcommittee on the Middle
East and South Asia.
RELATED:Obama: Israel shouldn't be afraid of changes in MideastGiuliani: US should've backed Iranian, not Egyptian revoltThe US should condition aid to Egypt – now at around
$1.5 billion a year – on whether the Muslim Brotherhood ends up in the
government, Chabot said.
“They’re about Shari’a law, they’re about
suppressing women’s rights, and I don’t think that we ought to condone that, I
don’t think that ought to be any part of the future of Egypt,” he said. “We
might not have the power to implement the US program, but I think with our
support – financial and otherwise – that we can maybe encourage things that
would ultimately be in their best long-term interests, and Israel’s and the
United States’.”
Chabot criticized the Obama administration for not being
bold enough in its position on the Brotherhood, and argued that the US weakness
on this issue has emboldened Iran and other enemies of America who were
calculating how to take advantage of the unrest.
The White House has
talked about the importance of including “nonsectarian” groups in Egypt’s future
government, and US officials have not issued blanket condemnations of the groups
nor indicated they oppose their participation in elections.
US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, speaking generally about the region in Geneva on Monday, said that
“political participation must be open to all people across the spectrum who
reject violence, uphold equality, and agree to play by the rules of
democracy.”
“They’ve been less than clear about accepting the Muslim
Brotherhood in a future government and in what capacity, and I think that sends
a message to those that are going to be negotiating the future of Egypt’s
government,” Chabot said of the Obama administration. He added that broadly
“this administration has oftentimes sent mixed messages, and pretty tepid and
weak messages on occasion.”
He described its “impotent” response to
Iran’s repression of the opposition movement in 2009 as the “most blaring
example,” and charged that as a result of that reaction and the one being
expressed now, Iran feels stronger.
Such strengthening of Iran
contributed the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon, he added.
Just as Chabot
doesn’t want to see American dollars going to a government including the Muslim
Brotherhood, he is opposed to aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces in a
Hezbollah-backed Lebanese government, as is currently being formed in Beirut. The
Obama administration has defended such aid as necessary to encourage secular
actors and counter-balance money coming Iran and its allies.
Chabot was
more circumspect when it came to continued American funding of the Palestinian
Authority – slated for some $400 million in President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget
request – but suggested it should be connected to movement on the peace
process.
“Any aid should be dependent on their good-faith effort to
resolve this situation, and thus far I’m not seeing much good faith on the
Palestinian side,” he said.
Chabot castigated the Palestinians for using
settlements as a “diversionary tactic” in order “to drive off the rails true
peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.”
He called on the
Obama administration to be firmer in pressing the Palestinians in the face of
“their intransigence in refusing to hold meaningful direct negotiations with the
Israelis.”
He also warned the Palestinians against seeing the UN as a
viable alternative to negotiations and otherwise trying to “unilaterally impose
on Israel what they ultimately want to get.”
In one of his few words of
praise for Obama in his conversation with the
Post, Chabot lauded the US veto of
a UN Security Council resolution being pushed by the Palestinians that would
have condemned Israel for settlement construction.
While it is his own
Republican Party that has been making loud calls for cutting foreign aid, Chabot
said he was confident Israel’s more than $3b. in yearly assistance was
secure.
“Even though this new Congress and a new conservative
Republican-oriented House, of which I’m a part, is absolutely bound and
determined to get our fiscal house in order, even those folks understand the
importance of our relationship with Israel,” he said.
Chabot, who once
went to The Hague to defend Israel when the International Court of Justice there
was considering the legality of the West Bank security barrier, said he was
pleased that his colleagues agreed with him in seeing Israel aid as “one area
where we should absolutely not be cutting back on funding, that we need to
continue to make sure that Israel gets the aid that it needs and deserves.”