Egypt foreign policy tone may change, but not its substance
Egypt's foreign policy under its first Islamist president is likely to change in tenor but not substance, at least in the short term, as the new government can ill afford to strain relations with the U.S. or risk international furor by abandoning Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel.President Mohamed Morsi faces domestic social and financial crises that are expected to eclipse foreign affairs in coming months. Rhetoric against Jerusalem and Washington may sharpen, but Morsi, who ran as the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, is desperate for Western and regional investment to ease the economic turmoil that has overwhelmed the Arab world's most populous state.
The new president, who will be sworn in to office Saturday, will be further constrained by the nation's secular military, which receives $1.3 billion annually in U.S. aid. Days before Morsi was elected, the generals, who have controlled the country since Hosni Mubarak's overthrow early last year, suppressed the powers of the president to counter the rising influence of conservative Islamists."There will be no change in the peace treaty with Israel, and strategic relations with the U.S. will continue," said Emad Gad, a foreign affairs expert with Cairo's Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
"Morsi will actually enhance relations with the U.S. The Muslim Brotherhood's program is based on free markets and is liberal when it comes to the economy."Still, the new president has made it clear that his approach to the Israelis will be less compliant than that taken during Mubarak's 30-year rule."The peace treaty between us and the Israelis has constantly been violated by the Israelis," Morsi recently told an Egyptian TV channel. "They must understand that peace is not just words. It is actions on the ground. The aggression on the Egyptian borders, their violence against Egyptian soldiers, and the threats they sometimes made to Egypt are all unacceptable. They should no longer think that the Egyptian president will back down."Some regard Morsi's rise as the foreshadowing of a strident political Islam that will have consequences from Abu Dhabi to Washington.
For now, however, it is unclear whether Morsi and the Brotherhood will mirror the diplomatically bold yet religiously moderate policies of Turkey or a more rigid, anti-Western Islam."For the United States, Morsi's election, coupled with Osama bin Laden's killing a year ago, underscores a shift from the threat of violent Islamist extremism to a new, more complex challenge posed by the empowerment of a currently nonviolent but no less ambitious form of Islamist radicalism," said Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.Morsi will also quickly confront the sensitivities of his Arab neighbors.
He has promised to restore Egypt to its regional prominence after years of decline under Mubarak. That is viewed apprehensively by Saudi Arabia, a close Mubarak ally, and other Persian Gulf Arab states whose international stature has ascended in pivotal dealings with Lebanon, Syria and Iran while Cairo's has diminished."The rebalancing of the political order and the emergence of Egypt would have a huge impact on regional political dynamics, but we are a long way off from that," said Michael Wahid Hanna, a Middle East expert and a fellow at the Century Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank. "A stronger, more independent Egypt would be on a course that would both balance and clash with the Saudis' power."
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