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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Oct-2013
13-Oct-13 World View -- U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff

Web Log - October, 2013

13-Oct-13 World View -- U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff

Mediterranean turns into a 'cemetery' as another migrant boat capsizes

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Mediterranean turns into a 'cemetery' as another migrant boat capsizes
U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff

Mediterranean turns into a 'cemetery' as another migrant boat capsizes

Survivors arriving in Valletta, the capital of Malta (Getty)

Survivors arriving in Valletta, the capital of Malta (Getty)

Malta's prime minister Joseph Muscat said on Friday:

"As things stand we are just building a cemetery within our Mediterranean sea.
We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery."

He was reacting to the news of another ship, packed with hundreds of migrants, capsizing as it approached Malta. In this case, rescue vessels from Italy and Malta responded quickly and hundreds of migrants were pulled from the sea, along with 34 dead bodies. This follows a much larger incident last week, when hundreds of migrants died from the sinking of a migrant boat packed with 500 migrants from Northern Africa. (See "Lampedusa disaster forces Europe's immigrant dilemma into headlines".) In the most recent incident, many of the migrants were white, indicating that they were likely to be Syrians and Palestinians.

Activists are calling for measures to stop the flow of migrants. Over 30,000 migrants arrived in Italy and Malta so far this year, compared with 15,000 in all of 2012. According to one official, "Behind these tragedies, as the dramatic instability of African countries increases, there are human traffickers who are enriching themselves on the backs of people who are fleeing war and hunger." BBC and Mirror (London)

U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff

On Wednesday, the Obama administration announced a partial cutoff of military aid to Egypt, as required by U.S. law because of the army coup that ousted a democratically elected leader, Mohamed Morsi. $260 million in cash assistance to the government is being delayed, and delivery of Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams tank kits, which are put together in Egyptian factories, and Harpoon anti-ship missiles will be held up. The cutoff has received some criticism because the U.S. needs good relations with Egypt for its own strategic regions. The aid to Egypt's military gives the U.S. preferential access to the Suez Canal, and also gives the U.S. intelligence information about the entire Mideast region.

So it's not surprising that the aid cutoff is turning out to be more symbolic than substantial. The delay in cash assistance will be more than made up for by cash contributions from Egypt's Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, which are jointly providing $12 billion in aid. Potentially more significant is the cutoff of delivery of the heavy weapons. Egypt cannot simply take Saudi Arabia's money and use it to purchase an F-16, since such sales are carefully controlled by the U.S. government. However, Egypt already has large inventories of all of these heavy weapons, and so a postponed delivery will not matter for a while. If the U.S. REALLY wanted to cut off aid, they would suspend maintenance and logistic support. But the Egyptians will still receive spare parts, maintenance and technical advisers, which is what they really need from the U.S. Daily News Egypt and AP

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 13-Oct-13 World View -- U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (13-Oct-2013) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Oct-2013 13-Oct-13 World View -- U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff

Mediterranean turns into a 'cemetery' as another migrant boat capsizes

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Oct-2013
13-Oct-13 World View -- U.S.-Egypt relationship little affected by aid cutoff