Biden's Egypt ambassador nominee vows to press Cairo on aid to Gaza, human rights

President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Egypt vowed at her Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday to help secure humanitarian aid flows to Gaza amid its conflict with Israel, and to press Cairo on human rights.

Herro Mustafa Garg, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Bulgaria, noted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had agreed to allow sustained humanitarian assistance into Gaza and let U.S. citizens out through the Rafah border crossing.

But it was clear that key details have yet to be resolved — and that there are plenty of ways the deal could fall apart.

With trucks full of food and water sitting at the border, Mustafa Garg was unable to say when they would cross amid some thorny questions such as what entity from Gaza other than Hamas would administer the aid and how roads to carry that aid would be repaved.

“They’re working on the mechanism to do that, but the general agreement is there,” Mustafa Garg said of Israeli and Egyptian leaders, adding that David Satterfield, the new U.S. envoy for the Middle East humanitarian issues, would also be involved.

The answer prompted Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to vent about the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel has turned off most of the water supply.

“I understand you don’t have this responsibility yet, but I can tell you there is really no time, according to U.N. officials,” Van Hollen said. “They’re down to one liter a day in rations for water in southern Gaza, which is not enough to support human life. ... It underscores the need, in my view, to have Israel turn on the water because your answer to me is that this is going to take even longer [to resolve] the dynamics around the border crossing.”

Some of the complications of opening the Rafah crossing have been Cairo’s concerns about its security and an influx of Palestinian refugee flows, Mustafa Garg said in an exchange with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)

“Both sides had concerns, and until both sides could come to an agreement about the mechanism, that border was not opening,” Mustafa Garg said. “There is now an agreement and we’re cautiously optimistic we will be seeing that flow in both directions.”

Before the Israel-Gaza conflict, the U.S. relationship with Egypt was in the headlines because
Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) moved to block $235 million in U.S. security aid to Egypt amid a backlash over the State Department decision to waive human rights restrictions on the money.

The panel’s previous chair, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), was indicted on corruption charges over allegations he accepted bribes to help Egypt secure military aid. Menendez has pleaded not guilty.

At the hearing, Cardin noted that while Egypt was an important partner for peace in the region, “Egypt has very serious human rights violations by its government.”

Mustafa Garg came under some of the toughest questioning from Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn), a longtime Egypt critic, over whether she would leverage the $1.3 billion the U.S. budgets in security aid to Egypt in the fight for human rights there.

Murphy has been championing speedy confirmation for Biden’s Middle East officials, and suggested that he would not stand in the way of Mustafa Garg’s confirmation, but the line of questioning suggests he’ll continue to press the issue.

Mustafa Garg vowed that if confirmed, she would implement U.S. security aid to Cairo with an eye toward making “tangible and lasting progress on human rights,” including on the release of political prisoners and judicial reforms.

“I pledge to consistently raise these concerns with the government of Egypt and to prioritize engagement with Egyptian civil society,” she told the panel early in the hearing.

But when it came time for Murphy to question Mustafa Garg, he quarreled with her assertion that the aid was “an investment in a self-reliant, capable and accountable Egyptian armed forces aligned with U.S. priorities and values.”

“It does not feel like the Egyptian military is aligned with U.S. values,” Murphy told her. “This is a military that was willing to do a pretty large scale deal with Russia, only undone by vigorous tactical U.S. diplomacy. This is a military used by the regime to try political dissenters in military courts.”

Mustafa Garg said she shared Murphy’s concerns and reiterated her and the administration’s commitment to Egypt’s progress on human rights. She also suggested Egypt has a role to play getting aid into Gaza and other regional issues Washington cares about.

But Murphy said the answer missed the mark.

“On the issue of treatment of political dissent ... do you believe the Egyptian military shares our values?” he asked, prompting her to reply: “Senator, there’s no doubt there is room for improvement there, and if confirmed I commit to doing what I can, along with the embassy to doing what I can to make progress on that very, very important issue of political dissent.”

Murphy closed saying, “I think you’re in a tough spot, you have to be careful what you say. I think you’ll do a good job on the ground ... I want our diplomats to tell the truth about what is happening in politically repressive countries, and maybe that will be a little easier in the future.”

The unfolding crisis in Israel has increased pressure on the Senate to approve Biden’s pick for ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and other ambassadors in the region. Several key Republicans are opposing Lew, but none voiced opposition to Mustafa Garg at the hearing.

The Senate this week held a confirmation hearing for Lew and confirmed ambassadors to Oman and Kuwait. The nominee for ambassador to Lebanon, advanced by the Foreign Relations Committee on June 1, awaits Senate confirmation.

The U.S. has been without a Senate-confirmed ambassador to Egypt since the departure of Jonathan Cohen in 2019. The embassy’s chargé d'affaires, Elizabeth Jones, is filling in. The White House nominated Mustafa Garg in March.

Mustafa Garg, who is Kurdish, fled Saddam Hussein’s regime with her family in 1974 and came to the U.S. as refugees. When Biden was vice president, she was a Middle East adviser to him.