5 yıl önce

'If anyone gets rid of Sisi, it’ll be the Egyptian military'

Former ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson said during a panel discussion that Sisi came through the military, and if he leaves, it will be through the same means.

AP

The then Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria.

A former US ambassador to Egypt said that the Egyptian army had overthrown the elected President Mohamed Morsi, describing the event as a “coup”.

Anne Patterson, the US ambassador to Egypt between 2011 and 2013 was a guest at a panel discussion held by the Center for American Progress (CAP) on February 14, 2019.

Patterson started by saying she wanted to make three general points about Egypt. One, she said, was that the US policy about Egypt had been “relentlessly consistent” for decades, which, she said, was “all about maintaining peace with Israel.”

The second, Patterson said, was the role of the Egyptian military. “The Egyptian military got rid of Mubarak, they got rid of Morsi, and if anyone gets rid of Al Sisi it’ll be the Egyptian military,” she commented. “It wasn’t a democratic process.”

She said she was very interested to have a discussion about the third point, which is “what happens when the democratic tradition brings forward results we don’t like.”

Patterson is alluding to Egypt’s election after the revolution in 2011 that saw the Muslim Brotherhood win the presidency.

You can view the entire panel discussion here.