Egypt dismisses Bush’s remarks

“What President Bush said about Egypt is an unacceptable interference in our internal affairs,” remarked Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in reference to Bush’s speech in Prague on Tuesday, in which he called for the release of imprisoned opposition leader Ayman Nour, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Nour, who came in a distant second to incumbent President Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections, is currently serving a five-year sentence for forgery charges. Nour and his lawyers have been negotiating for his release on medical grounds, but have thus far been unsuccessful. Nour’s wife, Gameela Ismail, and others fear that Bush’s comments will only hurt their case, as it is possible that state-run media will now use them to portray Nour as a “U.S. agent.”

The Egyptian government criticized Bush for commenting on Egypt’s internal matters in light of America’s oft-maligned practices in Guantanamo. The Egyptian parliament’s foreign relations committee stated, “The U.S. President should have talked about the prisoners of Guantanamo who are deprived of the simplest of legal defense guaranteed by all human rights conventions.”

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