March 22, 2024 (EIRNS)—With Secretary of State Tony Blinken at his side, host Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned yesterday that the Arab and Muslim world’s continued cooperation with the United States and the so-called “rules-based order” is being called into question by the refusal to act to end the military and humanitarian assault on the Palestinians.
The occasion was the joint press conference held by Blinken and Shoukry in Cairo on March 21 after their larger meeting with ministers and officials from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Jordan, Qatar, and the Palestinian Authority. Blinken spoke as if everyone there were best of allies and so a solid consensus had been reached. Then Reuters asked Shoukry if he was bothered about such double standards as the U.S. withholding $85 million in military aid to Egypt last year on grounds of alleged violation of human rights, and U.S. “unwillingness to use the same leverage on Israel.”
Shoukry brushed off the dispute over U.S. military aid, but took up “the broader issue of double standards” towards the Palestinian cause.
