LEAD: US threatens to pull aid as Egypt bars US citizens from exit

Jan 27, 2012, 20:50 GMT

Washington - The United States is threatening to withhold its annual military aid to Egypt, which has barred the son of a US presidential cabinet member and other Americans from leaving that country, The New York Times reported Friday.

'Obviously, any action that creates tension with our government makes the whole (aid) package more difficult,' said Michael H Posner, the US assistant secretary of state for human rights at a press conference in Cairo, according to the Times.

Respect for human rights are 'very much a part of that (aid) package,' he said.

Egypt has barred the son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and other US and European nationals from leaving the country, a situation that has even drawn US President Barack Obama into appeals to the Egyptian government.

Sam LaHood directs the International Republican Institute in Egypt. A sister organization, the National Democratic Institute, said six of its employees in Egypt have been banned from travelling. Both groups work on promoting democracy around the world.

LaHood was informed that he could not leave the country, the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television reported Thursday.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday in a briefing that Congress has asked the State Department for a number of 'certifications,' or conditions to fulfill before handing over aid, although it remains 'premature' to make a final decision on aid.

The Egyptian government is 'certainly aware of the certification requirements Congress has placed,' she said, adding that they include 'democracy,' but declined to elaborate.

The situation has been going on for weeks. In late December, Egyptian authorities raided 17 local and international human rights centres in a probe of alleged 'activities that do not comply with the law.' The two Washington-based institutes were among those targeted. Both receive US government money, CNN reported.

The spokesman for Egypt's general prosecutor's office, Adel Saeed, told CNN that the investigating judge had banned people from the International Republican Institute from traveling until the investigation of 'receiving foreign funding' is complete.

The Egyptian authorities said the group may have received illegal foreign funding and may have been operating in the country without government licenses.

In Washington, Nuland that the groups have been trying to register with the government but have had 'difficulty' in getting the Egyptian system to register them properly and allow them to operate.

In the December raids, prosecutors, accompanied by police officers, inspected the centres as part of an investigation into whether the groups operated without licences and received foreign money without prior authorization from Egyptian authorities.

Last week, Obama had a phone call with Egyptian Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has been ruling Egypt since leader Hosny Mubarak was forced to step down early in 2011.

Egypt's ruling military council has been hinting for months that the US may have been financing nonprofit human-rights groups and groups promoting democracy with the intent of destabilizing Egypt.

Egypt is the world's largest single recipient of US military aid. It currently receives 1.3 billion dollars a year, an arrangement in place since the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the Times noted.

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