Egypt under fire ahead of Sisi’s meeting with Trump

The US press is hammering Egypt ahead of El Sisi’s meeting with Trump: Covering all matters of general human rights, peace-brokering with Israel and economic policy, Politico wonders why the US maintains neutrality in what it says is El Sisi’s bid to extend presidential term limits. Human Rights Watch is calling on US Senators to take on Egypt’s human rights record, which also features heavily in coverage from the Washington Post and Time. WaPo zeroes in on human rights advocate Mohamed Soltan, while Time puts the spotlight on novelist Alaa Al Aswany. The Hill, in an opinion piece, focuses on rights of the nation’s Coptic minority.

Foreign Policy in particular is hitting us hard, with a trio of pieces taking aim at our human rights record: one suggests that Egypt’s copts are “treated as second-class citizens”, the second looks at prison conditions while a third calls for Egypt to respond to the events surrounding the death of a US tourist in the Western Desert in 2015.

Other headlines worth noting in brief:

• With cemetery cleanup efforts underway and USD 71 mn earmarked for restoring Jewish sites, Egypt is paying attention to its Jewish history, writes the Times of London (paywall). The efforts are meant to help prop up tourism, adds the Arab Weekly.
• An upcoming referendum on constitutional amendments will intensify a crackdown on criticism, warned Amnesty International.
• The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which could take as much as 25% of Egypt’s Nile water, has us downstreamers worried, reports the LA Times.