BRUSSELS (AP)
-- The European Union on Wednesday decided to suspend exports of
weapons and goods that could be used for internal repression but did not
halt aid programs for fear of hurting ordinary Egyptians already hit
hard.
Instead, the 28 EU foreign ministers
called on the military authorities and the supporters of deposed
President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement to resume
negotiations to avoid further bloodshed.
"It
was decided ... to suspend all arms deliveries that can be used
internally," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius following the
emergency meeting in Brussels. "We have decided to maintain our aid for
the Egyptian population because it already suffers enormously," he
added.
Clashes between Egyptian security forces and Morsi's supporters have killed hundreds of people since last week.
"We
do believe that the recent operations of the security forces have been
disproportionate and we're worried about the resulting alarming number
of people that have been killed," said the EU's foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton.
"We call on all sides to
stop the cycle of violence, to stop the provocations, to stop the hate
speech," she said, adding that the EU "strongly condemns" the recent
violence.
While the EU lacks the military
muscle and long-standing ties that give the U.S. a special position in
dealing with Cairo, the EU is Egypt's biggest trading partner and a
major source of aid, loans and tourists. The EU and its member states
last year pledged a combined 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in loans and
aid for Egypt.
The bloc's decision to suspend
some export licenses falls short of a full weapons embargo, but many
member states including Germany and Britain have already suspended new
exports to Egypt.
EU ministers shied away from
more radical steps such as cutting aid programs right away or imposing
economic sanctions, hoping to maintain its political leverage as a
broker in the crisis by continuing to talk to both sides in Egypt, who
are less suspicious of the EU than of the U.S.
Ashton
was the first international dignitary whom Egypt's military-backed
interim government allowed to meet Morsi in detention. Still, a joint
meditation effort with the U.S. failed, leading to last week's bloody
crackdown on Morsi's supporters.
It left the EU walking a tightrope of what is politically feasible.
"Doing
too much would risk upsetting completely the current power in Egypt,
but not doing enough risks corroborating this vision of a Europe that is
extremely cynical," Elena Aoun, professor of international relations at
Brussels University, said before the meeting.
The
U.S. so far has canceled joint military exercises and delayed the
delivery of four F-16 fighter jets in response to the violence, but it
is still weighing whether to suspend some of its annual $1.5 billion in
aid to Egypt.
Egypt, the most populous nation
in the Arab world, is a longtime U.S. ally and has been the bedrock of
Washington's Middle East policy, not least because of its peace treaty
with Israel. Egypt also controls the Suez Canal, an important trade
route, and has so far granted the U.S. fast passage through the canal to
deploy carrier groups to the Persian Gulf.
Moreover,
EU threats to cut some aid may not frighten Egypt's leadership since
Saudi Arabia - a long-time critic of the Muslim Brotherhood - has
pledged to plug any shortfall. Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf
nations, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have so far
promised $12 billion in new aid.
EU officials
insisted that Egypt's leaders know that they need business, investment
and tourism from Europe if they want to succeed in pulling their economy
back from the brink.
Losing support from the
EU, the world's biggest economy, "cannot be made up for by one, two or
three Gulf states," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.
The
EU is Egypt's biggest trading partner with a trade volume of about 24
billion euros in 2011 (then $34.5 billion), compared with $8.2 billion
with the United States.
The ultimate goal,
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said after the meeting, must be a
political solution which would also avoid further destabilizing the
region.
"I am fundamentally convinced there is no alternative to getting both of them around the negotiating table," Timmermans said.
Otherwise,
he warned, "I would consider it tragic that at the end of the road we
are back in the 1990s, with a permanent state of siege and an
underground Brotherhood that partly get involved in terror."
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