(Bloomberg) -- The US State Department approved sending Egypt $1.3 billion in military financing this year, despite demands on Capitol Hill to withhold about a quarter of that over human rights concerns, as the Biden administration seeks Cairo’s help ending the war in Gaza.
The State Department told Congress Wednesday that its intention to provide the full package reflects Egypt’s contributions to US national security priorities, particularly toward a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a department spokesman.
The decision comes as the US struggles to secure a deal that would halt the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and destabilized the region, and free the remaining Israeli hostages held by the militant group. Egypt and Qatar have both played a crucial role in the talks by helping communicate with Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization.
The move also comes as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi navigates the aftermath of an economic crisis that triggered a $57 billion international bailout led by the International Monetary Fund and United Arab Emirates.
The US began sending large amounts of aid to Cairo following the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1978, and relies on Egypt to be a stabilizing force across the Middle East and North Africa regions it straddles. In addition to Gaza and Israel to the east, Egypt faces on its south Sudan’s civil war, which has sparked the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
The move to provide Egypt with the full amount defies demands from a group of senators led by Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week to withhold $320 million Congress made contingent on human rights conditions, which they said in a letter “has continued to deteriorate.”
Roughly $225 million of that is conditional on broad human rights issues — which Blinken waived on national security grounds — and $95 million related to releasing political prisoners and due process, a condition Blinken determined Cairo has fulfilled, according to the spokesman.
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