Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Fayza Abouelnaga has officially relayed to the United States the Egyptian government's rejection of US organizations financing unregistered NGOs in Egypt.
She said the organizations are not authorized to work in Egypt as they did not abide to Egyptian Foreign Ministry rules.
According to information provided by the US ambassador to Cairo, since the revolution, 14 US organizations working in Egypt have received US$47.8 million, and 12 Egyptian organizations have received US$5.8 million.
“Informing us of this information does not justify the continuation of the financing,” Abouelnaga said. “They must cease work immediately.”
The minister confirmed that the government does not object to foreign financing, so long as it abides by the rules that were agreed upon with foreign donors, and so long as it is directed to developmental projects. “But financing for political purposes is unacceptable,” she said.
For her part, US Ambassador Anne Patterson told the American Global Post online newspaper that her administration is proud to support independent Egyptian civil society organizations, but does not finance political parties.
The paper quoted Egyptian journalist Fahmy Huweidy as saying that Washington does not support true democracy in Egypt, but rather pushes for a certain political agenda of the US administration.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
