Deutsche Welle quotes Amy Hawthorne, resident senior fellow at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, on how the United States is working with a post-Mubarak Egypt:
According to Amy Hawthorne, an Egypt expert with the Atlantic Council, the White House has adopted a pragmatic approach in its relations with post-Mubarak Cairo. Hawthorne said that the Obama administration would prefer to deal with a democratic government. But with the political situation in Egypt unpredictable, Washington fears a complete break in its ties with Cairo, which could jeopardize its core security interests in the peace treaty with Israel and counterterrorism cooperation.
“This administration does not believe that the US has very much ability to influence or shape Egyptian domestic politics,” Hawthorne told DW.
“And given a choice between maintaining relations and taking such a strong stance that ties might be ruptured, the US is going to choose working with the Egyptian government and continuing the relations,” she said.
Hawthorne believes that the White House’s Egypt policy does differ from the Mubarak era in important respects. She said that although the Obama administration is willing to work with el-Sissi on a narrow set of security issues, it is not willing to protect him from the will of the Egyptian people, as Washington protected Mubarak for decades.