The former UN Secretary General and former honorary president of the National Council for Human Rights, Boutros Ghaly told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he cannot judge President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's performance until after at least two years in office.
Ghaly refused to speak about his nephew Youssef Boutros Ghaly, Mubarak-era finance minister who fled to London, and just commented saying he is like his son and the situation he is in is vindictive.
Ghaly accused the French, English, and American newspapers of adopting a hostile situation toward Egypt since 30 June.
He attributed the foreign newspapers' situation to three possibilities. First, American pressure as Europe is still subject to the Americans through the Atlantic Alliance or through economic relations; second is that these countries are afraid of the radical currents of political Islam; and third is that some media and foreign newspapers are funded by countries like Qatar, according to Ghaly.
Ghaly added the foreign media's hostile situation harmed Egypt in many fields, especially tourism.
"The West backed the Muslim Brotherhood after Mubarak because they believed they could contain terrorism through it as the group would focus on domestic issues and cooperate with them," said Ghaly. "The general trend does not go for reconciliation [with the MB] and I do not back reconciliation because the MB do not have honesty or edema and are still clinging to their own project at the expense of the state."
Ghaly said he did not know if the Sykes-Picot geographical borders would remain the same or change due to current conflicts.
Egypt is a special case because of its location and other factors, but there are countries such as Yugoslavia that was split into five states, and the state of Czechoslovakia, which was split into two states. There has to be a strong president who can unite the country, Ghaly added.
For the Syrian situation, Ghaly said: "The leadership is weak, despite the fact that Bashar is still intact. The conflict continues because a minority is in control and if it leaves power, it will be subjected to genocide."
If there is a strong leader in Libya, he can unite its people, said Ghaly.
He expected the situation would escalate in Libya over the coming two years and believed Egypt would be harmed due to the lay off of nearly one million Egyptian workers in Libya.
Egypt neglected Sudan and dealt with its division as if it happened within a foreign country, not a border state that is considered an extension to Egypt's national security, said Ghaly.
He praised Sudan's president'svisit to Egypt saying it comes as part of Egypt's current authority's endeavors for calm at least in the current transitional phase.
Ghaly said he failed over 15 years to create an international organization to be responsible for supervising the Nile navigation, electricity, agriculture and political aspects like the Mekong River organization in Asia due to the rejection of some African countries.
Ghaly accused the Egyptian authorities of neglecting relations with African countries including Ethiopia over years.
The crisis is not in the construction of the Renaissance Dam, but in the construction of other dams by Ethiopia and Uganda. The Renaissance Dam is a first step. They suffer from crises as you suffer from crises such as overpopulation.
Ghaly underestimated the closure of former US President Jimmy Carter's observatory center in Egypt saying there are over 500 other observatory organizations still operating in Egypt. Ghaly also did not give importance to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement against Sisi at the UN's General Assembly.
President Barack Obama might have criticized Egypt over the decline of freedoms to satisfy a certain internal stream in the US or Israel, or to appear as defending freedoms, according to Ghaly.
Egypt is witnessing a state of stability now, but Sisi cannot be judged except after two years, Ghaly mentioned.
Stability is what matters, not the law, Ghaly said commenting on the criticism directed to the law regulating protests.
There is discrimination at the international level against Egypt. If you want to distort the image of a state, you highlight its problems. On the other hand, nobody is addressing the violations occurring in the Guantanamo, said Ghaly.
Egypt needs between 10 to 15 years to reach change. There are several models in Central America like Chile, Brazil, Argentina and other countries. But stability has to be the priority, he added.
For the peace treaty with Israel, Ghaly said there could be amicable agreements with Israel without necessarily amending the convention as some parties call.
Ghaly said some violations could be overlooked in return for achieving stability.
There is a more serious problem that has not been addressed, which is the population explosion. Cairo now has 20 million residents. There are several solutions to the overpopulation problem like changing the capital city, using the one-child policy like China, or encouraging immigration, Ghaly said.
Ghaly pointed out that Egyptians need to be more open. "They bring the greatest doctor in the US and give him the American citizenship. This is open-mindedness and this is the reason behind the greatness of the US," he said.
For the Mubrak-era, Ghaly said former President Hosni Mubarak no doubt had his flaws. His problem was that he did not like renovation. He strongly rejected the establishment of nuclear power stations and now after nearly 20 years, Egypt mulls establishing them.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
