Egypt

Egypt urges US restraint over Missouri unrest, US snaps back

Egypt on Tuesday urged US authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with racially charged demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri – echoing language Washington used to caution Egypt as it cracked down on Islamist protesters last year.

US foes Iran and Syria also lambasted the United States, but while they are frequent critics of Washington, it is unusual for Egypt to criticize such a major donor. It was not immediately clear why Egypt would issue such a statement.

Ties between Washington and Cairo were strained after Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters following the army's ousting of freely elected President Mohamed Morsy in July 2013.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry's statement on the unrest in Ferguson read similarly to one issued by US President Barack Obama's administration in July 2013, when the White House "urged security forces to exercise maximum restraint and caution" in dealing with demonstrations by Morsy supporters.

The ministry added it was "closely following the escalation of protests" in Ferguson, unleashed by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman on 9 August.

Human Rights Watch said in a report last week Egyptian security forces systematically used excessive force against Islamist protesters after Morsy was ousted. Egypt said the report was "characterized by negativity and bias".

A US official on Tuesday snapped back at Egypt after criticism from Cairo over possible human rights violations in the racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.

"We here in the United States will put our record for confronting our problems transparently and honestly and openly up against any other countries in the world," said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Egypt, which itself has been under international scrutiny for a deadly crackdown on protesters, is "closely following the escalation of protests in Ferguson and the reactions," foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdel Atty said Tuesday.

Abdel Atty pointed to a statement by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for restraint.

Ban's remarks "represented the position of the international community towards these events, especially (Ban's) call for restraint and the right to peaceful assembly," Abdel Atty said.

When there is social unrest like in Ferguson, Americans look at it "transparently, honestly and openly, and we, of course, would suggest that other countries do the same thing," said Harf, speaking at a State Department briefing.

"People are free to say whatever they want. That's something we believe in very deeply here. It's freedom of expression."

Protests in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, broke out after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager on 9 August.

Regarding Egypt, "we are very clear when we have very serious concerns about the human rights situation, about what happened over the last year … to peaceful protesters, to journalists being thrown in jail for over a year now, to very huge numbers of death sentences being handed down as we’ve seen recently as well," said Harf.

In Egypt, at least 1,400 people, mostly Islamist protesters, have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, including around 700 on a single day in Cairo in August 2013.

The violence was unleashed after the military ouster of Islamist president Morsy last year that also led to a spike in militant attacks in which scores of soldiers and policemen have been killed.

A reporter mentioned that China and Iran have also used the riots to criticize Washington.

"I would certainly strongly disagree with the notion that what's happening here is comparable in any way to situations in some of those countries you've named," Harf said.

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