CAIRO: Egyptian dissident Ayman Nour on Monday accused US President Barack Obama of neglecting pledges to support political reform in the Arab world s most populous country.
Speaking a day before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meets Obama at the White House, Nour told AFP: There is a setback in the promotion of the values Obama pledged to support during his election campaign.
It betrays American values, said the 44 year-old lawyer, freed earlier this year after three years in prison.
Obama, whose talks with Mubarak will focus on Middle East peace, is expected by analysts to place less emphasis on political reform in the region than predecessor George W. Bush did.
The administration s rhetoric has backed away from Bush s robust calls for Egypt to release dissidents and ensure fair elections.
Nour was sentenced to five years in jail on disputed forgery charges shortly after he contested the country s last presidential elections in 2005, but was let out in February on health grounds.
US media reported that Bush s administration delayed a Free Trade Agreement in response to Nour s imprisonment and other abuses by the Egyptian government.
We want to see an improvement in relations between Egypt and the US, but the improvement should reflect progress on the ground on human rights, said Nour.
In Obama s speech to the Muslim world from Cairo in June, he called for a respect of human rights in the region, although he said the US would not impose a system of government on other countries.
Obama has described the octogenarian Egyptian leader, in power since 1981, as a force of stability in the region.
Mubarak, who is believed to be grooming his son Gamal Mubarak as a successor, has not said whether he will contest the next elections, scheduled for 2011.
The US State Department s 2009 human rights report said that there was a decline in the (Egyptian) government s respect for freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion during the year.
There is a lack of political will to improve or remedy serious (human rights) violations in Egypt, said Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
But he said Obama s approach is preferable to that of the previous administration, whose policies were widely unpopular in the region.
I appreciate the honesty of this administration, when they explicitly state where the issue of human rights lies on the agenda, said Bahgat.
It s better than the hypocritical lip service Bush paid human rights, he said.
Egyptian media reported that US Coptic Christian groups are expected to protest against Mubarak in Washington, despite a call from the Coptic pope Shenuda III, who professes support for Mubarak, to welcome the president.
Copts, about 10 percent of Egypt s near-80 million population, complain of discrimination in the Muslim majority country, which has witnessed repeated clashes between Copts and Muslims this year.
