The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 25 here is a consensus among Egyptians that there will be no drastic changes in U.S. policy regarding key Middle East issues whether John McCain or Barack Obama takes office in January. The situation in Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the current standoff with Iran over its nuclear program will all be high on the agenda of the new administration, regardless of whether it is Republican or Democratic. That said, many experts do believe U.S.-Egyptian relations, which have not been in the best shape under the Bush administration, will improve if Obama is elect- ed. This is for two reasons. First, he is seen as more like- ly than his opponent to recognize Egypt as an important strategic partner and a driving force in regional peace- making. Second, Obama is expected to engage person- ally in Middle East diplomacy early in his administration — unlike McCain, who appears likely to operate with more or less the same detachment Bush has shown in this regard. Egyptian-American Relations: A Warming Trend? Ambassador Abdel Raouf Al-Reedy, who worked for 10 years as Egypt’s top diplomat in the United States and is currently head of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, describes the temperature of the current bilater- al relationship as “cool.” He sees a sort of formality, par- ticularly as compared with the administration of Bush’s father, and attributes it to the current president’s adop- tion of a one-sided policy favoring Israel. He would expect bilateral ties to be much better under an Obama administration, in light of his readiness to listen to other countries in the region. Ambassador Dr. El-Sayed Amyin Shalaby, executive director of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, agrees that relations with Washington are not in the best shape. He cites weaknesses in all three diplomatic pil- lars put in place back in the mid-1970s: the search for peace in the Middle East, cooperation in the Persian Gulf region and the maintenance of U.S. economic and military assistance to Egypt. He also identifies a prevailing feeling that the Bush administration has not been responsive to the need to promote solid ties with Cairo over the past seven years. But he does detect a greater appreciation within other American institutions, especially Congress, of Egypt’s F O C U S O N T H E 2 0 0 8 E L E C T I O N S E GYPTIANS E XPECT A S HIFT IN S TYLE , N OT S UBSTANCE W HATEVER THE OUTCOME IN N OVEMBER , MOST E GYPTIANS DO NOT EXPECT ANY MAJOR CHANGES IN BILATERAL RELATIONS . B Y S HOHRAT A REF T Shohrat Aref is a diplomatic reporter for the Cairo-based Middle East News Agency. She specializes in U.S. poli- tics, reporting from Egypt and the United States. The author wishes to thank Ahmed Gheith, MENA’s editorial managing director, for his assistance in conducting inter- views for this article.