Whining narcissist

The interview excerpts published in this morning’s Washington Post dash any hope that Egypt might get lucky and find a serious democrat in General Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the July 3 coup leader and still Defense Minister.  Normally I would gripe that the Post failed to publish the entire text, but it would be hard to read much more.  

It’s not that Sissi doesn’t say interesting things.  His annoyance at President Morsi’s disrespect for the Mubarak-appointed judiciary and other state institutions (read Egyptian army) and his disdain for the Brotherhood’s anti-nationalist, pan-Islamist political program confirm that the coup represents in part the revenge of the Mubarak deep state, which Morsi did relatively little to dismantle during his year in power.

But the whining screeches through:

We really wonder: Where is the role of the United States and the European Union and all of the other international forces that are interested in the security, safety and well-being of Egypt? Are the values of freedom and democracy exclusively exercised in your countries but other countries do not have the right to exercise the same values and enjoy the same environment? Have you seen the scores of millions of Egyptians calling for change in Tahrir? What is your response to that?

You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that.

This is what Sissi has to say to Washington, which has bent over backwards to maintain its $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt.  And he says it a day after the Secretary of State credited the July 3 military takeover with “restoring democracy.”

It gets worse:

Where is the economic support to Egypt from the U.S.? Even throughout the year when the former president was in office — where was the U.S. support to help the country restore its economy and overcome its dire needs?

Well, $250 million or so was maintained in that aid package, despite the continued prosecution of American democracy-support workers.  And the Americans backed a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan that the Egyptian government declined to pursue because easier money was available from the Muslim Brotherhood’s friends in Qatar.

What about the narcissism?  Here we go:

But are you going to run?

You just can’t believe that there are people who don’t aspire for authority.

Is that you?

Yes. It’s the hopes of the people that is ours. And when the people love you — this is the most important thing for me.

The pains and suffering of the people are too many. A lot of people don’t know about the suffering. I am the most aware of the size of the problems in Egypt. That is why I am asking: Where is your support?

This is the first claim I’ve seen that the Tamarod demonstrations that led up to the coup were in favor of Sissi rather than against Morsi.  More important:  Sissi is clearly not planning to restore democracy and retire.  He is planning to get himself elected.  After all, the people love him.  Yes, he promises “civilian” rule and elections with international observers, but what he wants is unconditional American support:

The Egyptians are looking up to you, the Americans. Don’t disappoint their hopes. Don’t give them your backs.

He in particular wants the Americans to use their influence with the Muslim Brotherhood:

The U.S. administration has a lot of leverage and influence with the Muslim Brotherhood, and I’d really like the U.S. administration to use this leverage with them to resolve the conflict.

This is rich, since Morsi appointed Sissi as head of the Egyptian army staff, after working closely with him in the runup to the presidential election.  The American relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood was always dicey.  It will be much worse now that Kerry has spoken up in favor of what the Obama administration refuses to call a coup.  This will hardly allow for a lot of influence, though I imagine our diplomats are doing what they can to get the Brotherhood back into the political arena.

General Sissi doesn’t like what he is hearing from the Americans.  But the tone and content of Sissi’s interview are far from what an American concerned to see Egypt back on track to democracy would want to hear from the Egyptians.