U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to assure Mideast allies the Iran nuclear deal makes them safer.

“There can be absolutely no question that if the Vienna plan, fully implemented, it will make Egypt and all the countries of this region safer than they otherwise would be, or were,” Kerry said Sunday in Cairo on the first leg of a trip to the Middle East and South Asia.

Kerry met with his counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to pledge U.S. support.

“The United States and Egypt recognize that Iran is engaged in destabilizing activities in the region, and that is why it is so important to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains wholly peaceful,” Kerry said.

“If Iran is destabilizing, it is far, far better to have an Iran that doesn’t have a nuclear weapon than one that does,” the America’s top diplomat said.

Strained US-Egypt ties

U.S. relations with Egypt have been strained since Sissi, the country’s one-time army chief, overthrew the elected Islamic president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.  More than 1,000 Morsi supporters were killed in a crackdown on protests and militants have since killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and policemen.

At a news conference with Shoukry, Kerry spoke of the need for “balance” in fighting militants and respecting human rights in Egypt.

His visit to Cairo came two days after the United States delivered eight F-16 warplanes to the Egyptian military to help it counter terrorist threats.

Kerry next headed to Qatar to meet with his Arab counterparts in the Persian Gulf region.

Egypt rights issues

During the joint appearance with Kerry, Shoukri was asked about reports from a journalism watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, that Egypt had detained more than two dozen journalists.

 

Shoukri said no journalists mentioned in the report were in prison or facing a judicial process related to journalism.  He said they were accused of having links to terrorist activity or for trying to disregard “stipulated legal norms.”

 

The foreign minister said there had been a “misperception” and a “lack of information” regarding Egypt’s judicial system.

 

“It is the government’s adherence to the rule of law and the full implementation of the legal rights of both the accused and of society that is important in this regard,” he said.

President Sissi’s government has stepped up monitoring of journalists’ activities, according to Hamada Elrasam, a freelance journalist and documentary producer in Cairo.

 

He said, in some instances, Egyptian police had seized his cell phone in order to see how he had been reporting demonstrations and other events on social media sites.

 

Growing terror threat

Egypt has also been confronting a growing terrorist threat in the Sinai Peninsula, some from militant groups that have claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.

 

“The Egyptian government, under President Sissi, is trying to make the argument that basically all Islamists, and certainly all Islamists affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood are part of the terrorist problem and should be treated as terrorists,” said Egypt analyst Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

 

On the sidelines of the strategic dialog, Tom Malinowski, the U.S. assistant secretary for democracy and human rights, met with members of Egypt’s civil society and political parties.

 

Kerry’s visit to Cairo is the first stop of a five-nation tour of the Middle East and South Asia.

Unease in the Gulf

In Doha, Kerry will meet on Monday with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Some Gulf ministers fear that sanctions relief for Iran, which is part of the nuclear agreement, could enable Tehran to widen its influence in the region and broaden its material support for militant groups.

While in Doha, Kerry also will discuss security issues with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Their talks are expected to include efforts to combat Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. U.S. officials say they will also discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

From Qatar, Kerry travels to Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, three countries that have been involved in talks on the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership to cut tariffs and trade barriers.

 

He will also attend a forum in Kuala Lumpur organized by ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

While in Hanoi, Kerry will take part in an event marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam following the lengthy U.S. war there four decades ago.
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