CAIRO: Egypt on Sunday criticized what it called US interference in its internal affairs after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined a growing chorus of American criticism of Cairo s human rights record.
Despite the solidity of Egyptian-American relations, Egypt doesn t think that allows anyone – even the United States – to interfere in its internal affairs, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in a statement.
The US has become more conscious of this reality, even if press statements by certain senior administration officials, including the secretary of state, could give the opposite impression, he said.
Rice said on Aug. 2 that she had expressed her disappointment to President Hosni Mubarak over an Egyptian court s decision to keep opposition leader Ayman Nour behind bars despite his ailing health.
Nour, who was runner-up to Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election, is serving a five-year jail term for forging affidavits needed to set up his Ghad party, a conviction widely seen as politically motivated.
Egyptian affairs concern Egypt… Egyptian law is the master on Egyptian territory and we reject some people s attempts at interference, said Aboul Gheit.
Amid growing criticism of Egypt s rights record, the US House of Representatives voted in June to withhold $200 million in military aid until Cairo took certain steps, including improving human rights.
