Posted on 05/19/2011 5:46:47 AM PDT by IbJensen
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will announce this week a new aid plan for the Middle East and North Africa that U.S. officials say will be far bolder than previous American economic assistance to the region.
Mr. Obama will outline the plan, which could include debt cancellation and a reprogramming of financial aid the U.S. already provides to countries like Egypt, in a speech he is scheduled to deliver Thursday at the State Department.
Whatever aid he announces, though, is unlikely to assuage Arab governments, which had been hoping the White House would push forcibly for a resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The president’s aides say his speech will focus only briefly on the issue.
“At the end of the day, the Palestinian cause remains a dominant issue,” said a senior Arab official. “A speech by the president without addressing the conflict is unlikely to generate much enthusiasm.”
Mr. Obama met Tuesday with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has been pressing U.S. officials to take a more aggressive role in the peace process, according to Arab diplomats.
After the meeting, Mr. Obama said the U.S. will provide Jordan with hundreds of millions of dollars through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the government institution that finances and insures private business to promote economic growth. The result, according to the U.S., will be roughly $1 billion for economic activity in Jordan. The president also pledged 50,000 metric tons of wheat.
“All of this will help to stabilize the cost of living and day-to-day situation of Jordanians and will provide a foundation so that these economic reforms can move forward and long-term development can take place,” Mr. Obama said.
The president’s goal, officials said, is to give a financial boost to the political change sweeping the Mideast and North Africa, where dashed economic aspirations have fed unrest.
Senior U.S. officials are particularly alarmed by the deterioration in Cairo’s finances since the street revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February. The Egyptian government has been forced to spend between $3 billion and $3.5 billion of its foreign-exchange reserves a month to pay for food and other commodities as tourism has plunged and overseas remittances have dried up.
Egypt’s government has been seeking relief on around $1 billion in debts tied to wheat purchases in the 1970s, according to officials involved in the talks. Cairo has paid off the principal on these loans, but continues to service interest payments.
The administration is looking at a mixture of direct aid, debt relief, and export credits to help stabilize Egypt’s finances. “There are a whole range of tools we could use,” said a U.S. official. “We’ve been looking for the right mix.”
‘Great now were going to feed and pay our enemies”
At least we aren’t buying them weapons, oh wait we already did that.
Because Welfare payments to the unemployable USUALLY lead to economic reforms and long term development..... right?
No, it just rewards their economic incompetence and takes away any and all impetus to change anything for the better?
Oh.
King Abdullah is US educated and probably the most moderate and modern leaders in the ME.
I am sure he told this pinhead (Obama) to solve this Palestinian mess because those Palestinian pigs and monkeys aren't coming over my border in mass when Israel finally throws them out.
We tossed Arafat and his PLO goons in 1970 and they aren't coming back.
bump
Peter Fonda called ZERO a traitor.
Now tell me again how he is a shoe in for re-election.
I say again 10% approval if that much. . . . .
We need to stop this commie asshole!
Tell us how you really feel! lol
What I don't understand is Congress is supposed to hold the purse strings. How is it that the Executive branch can commit billions of dollars???
500 Million tons not 50 tons.
I wondered that myself - I'm a little weak in foreign aid implementation; whether it requires congressional approval or if it's a grab bag the president wields alone.
I also note that no one has answered your question.
Wonderful, now Arab farmers can use their crop to produce ethanol.
We have to pay for the 2 million Egyptians,who are out of
work because their tourist industry has been destroyed.
Neither one of those countries export oil in any meaningful amount that I am aware of.
What do you expect? A muslim looting the US to support muslims in the ME — how strange is that? I’ll bet that none goes to non-muslim countries in the ME, such as Israel.
>Now tell me again how he is a shoe in for re-election.
I will.
Stop reading the propaganda about “approval.”
The donks have NY locked, California locked , most of the NW locked, most of the NE locked excluding possibly Maine & another 2 -3 EV from that area.
The midwest will split, we may get Mn, & the SW will flip a couple of states our way.
The SE is GOP, the mid south will again split.
Now that leaves 3 states with a huge EV left - Ohio, Pennsylvania, & Florida.
The candidate who takes 2 of those 3 states is our next president with 271 EV.
Obama will no way take Florida even though the MSM will continue to call it a tossup till the final second. - O will lose Florida big.
We will fight tooth & nail in Pa, and probably lose it.
That leaves Ohio and that state is going to be one battle scarred wasteland after all of the billions are spent there.
Obama is amassing a HUGE war chest & we are going to be outspent.
Run the numbers - Your call...
I wondered that myself - I'm a little weak in foreign aid implementation; whether it requires congressional approval or if it's a grab bag the president wields alone.
I also note that no one has answered your question.
My question is how are they still spending this kind of money if the debt limit has not been raised? Did they tap into their TARP slush fund or are they just ignoring congress entirely. And if it is the latter isn't there some sort of mechanism to restrain it?
perhaps the I word should be shouted rather than whispered in the house
When are we getting rid of 80% of the cabinet commissars and the agencies they head?
Education, EPA will do for starters, but first we need a leader who is indeed from the far-right wing!
I don’t think you particularly like the current occupant of the White Hut.
You’re just an Obama hater who probably dislikes Moochell and little Malia and Sasha.
I forget the damned dog’s name.
U.S. officials have long argued that the funding promotes strong ties between the two countries’ militaries, which in turn has all sorts of benefits. For example, U.S. Navy warships get “expedited processing” through the Suez Canal.
Here’s a 2009 U.S. embassy cable recently released by WikiLeaks that makes essentially the same point:
President Mubarak and military leaders view our military assistance program as the cornerstone of our mil-mil relationship and consider the USD 1.3 billion in annual FMF as “untouchable compensation” for making and maintaining peace with Israel.
The tangible benefits to our mil-mil relationship are clear: Egypt remains at peace with Israel, and the U.S. military enjoys priority access to the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace.
The military funding also enables Egypt to purchase U.S.-manufactured military goods and services, a 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office explained.
The report criticized both the State Department and the Defense Department for failing to measure how the funding actually contributes to U.S. goals.
Does this aid require Egypt to meet any specific conditions regarding human rights?
No. Defense Secretary Gates stated in 2009 that foreign military financing “should be without conditions.”
Gates prefaced that comment by saying that the Obama administration, like other U.S. administrations, is “always supportive of human rights.”
The administration of former president George W.
Bush had threatened to link military assistance to Egypt’s human rights progress, but it didn’t follow through.
When exiled Egyptian dissident, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, called on the U.S. government to attach conditions to aid to Egypt, U.S. officials dismissed the idea as unrealistic.
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