By POMED –
On October 7, Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price revealed that Yael Lempert, the acting assistant secretary for the department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, met with an International Dialogue Group delegation to discuss the Biden administration’s “ongoing concerns about human rights in Egypt.”
The International Dialogue Group, composed of Egyptian politicians and former government officials, was established in March and has since assumed a high-profile role lobbying for the release of political prisoners.
The delegation to Washington included the group’s head, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, and former ambassador and minister Moushira Khattab, both of whom were also appointed to the government’s National Council for Human Rights—Khattab as president—earlier this week.
Price stated that it is clear the Biden administration still possesses concerns related to human rights in Egypt and has “relayed those concerns directly to Egyptian authorities on any number of occasions.”
He added, “Such meetings can provide productive ways to engage on these concerns and … show United States support for Egypt in achieving the objectives set out in its own national human rights strategy which it launched last month.” Khattab and al-Sadat’s National Council for Human Rights is responsible for implementing that new strategy.
