Resignations from Egypt's 'Ibn Khaldoun center' due to US finance controversy
Egypt-USA, Politics, 11/28/2003

Five Egyptian politicians and intellectuals submitted their resignation from the membership of the board of "Ibn Khaldoun Center For Developmental Studies " in protest of reports that the center will receive a part of the annual aid provided by the USA to Egypt.

The Egyptian mass media talked since weeks about the center, which is run by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, will get part of the aid estimated that Egypt receives annually, estimated to be about 2 billion dollars. A matter which was denied by Ibrahim, who considered it as part of the "government continued campaign against him."

He added that one American congressman proposed to allocate the sum directly to the center, but the idea was not fruitful. He continued that he was notified about the resignation of the members, but "he honors their decisions and thank them for serving the center for over 10 years."

Ibrahim was convicted in May 2001, for receiving money from foreign sources without the consent of the government. He was released in March next year after he appealed the case against him for the second time.

In a press statement, chairman of the foreign relations committee at the Egyptian parliament, Mustafa al-Faqeh, said he will resign from the center's board "because of the talks about this aid." Al-Faqeh considered in a statement to al-Mosawr magazine that transferring a sum of the allotted aid to Egypt is a "regrettable decision." For his part, former Egyptian minister of information Ahmad Kamal Abu Al Majd, who was one of the defendants of Ibrahim in the court, said that by allocating the sum for the center "the Americans provoked the government and the people against the center."

The chairman of "al-Ahram center for political and strategic studies," Abdul Menem Saeed, said he will withdraw his membership from the center because of Ibrahim's reputation. The decision also covered the Coptic parliamentarian Munir Fakhri Abdul Nour and the chairman of the Egyptian council for foreign relations Muhammad Shaker.

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