THREAD: President Macron's comments on human rights in Egypt at today's press conference with President Sisi were appalling for a variety of reasons. He propped up Sisi's untenable effort to connect repression to the fight against extremism when we all know this to be untrue.

Macron's decision to include in his brief comments about the abysmal rights situation in Egypt acknowledgement of Egypt's fight against extremists bolsters Egypt's false claims that their repression is linked to counterterrorism. France knows this is untrue.

The human rights defenders Macron claims he freed ahead of Sisi visit were arrested after meeting with many western diplomats including French. Their arrests had nothing to do with counterterrorism. Their work exposes discrimination against LGBTQ Egyptians & religious minorities

Indeed, under Sisi, crackdowns on LGBTQ Egyptians, religious minorities and atheists have intensified. If anything it is extremist views in the regime that is fueling part of the repression rather than extremism being the target of repression.

Despite this, these peaceful human rights defenders have been charged in terrorism courts in Egypt and while they are no longer being detained, they continue to face false charges and have had their assets frozen.

It's disappointing to see the hard won diplomatic victory of freeing 3 @EIPR staff, who should never have been arrested, be used by Macron to justify refusal to attach teeth to his alleged committment to improve rights situation in Egypt. Countless prisoners of conscience remain

Macron's claim that conditionality would be counterproductive & that progress can be made without it is discredited by over 7 years of prima facie evidence in which press freedoms & political freedoms have continued to deteriorate while western aid & weapons stream into Egypt

His claim that conditionality on weapons sales could destabilize Egypt is untenable. It contradicts what Macron rightly argued in his 2019 visit, that rights violations are damaging to Egypt's stability. Without conditionality there's no credible pressure for situation to improve

Moreover, many of the arms France sells to Egypt have no serious counterterrorism application. Advanced fighter jets and helicopter carriers are not counterterrorism tools. Other arms have been used against protestors. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/28/how-french-weapons-enable-egypts-abuses

Egypt's increased arms purchases from France began after some restrictions on military aid from US following the massacre of protests at Rabaa in August of 2013. Egypt wanted to diversify its sources &, it would appear, rightly determined France would sell arms without scrutiny

While both presidents insisted they're having frank discussions, Macron opted to state an untenable falsehood when he said "we're both legitimately elected presidents." In 2018 Sisi jailed or drove out all his opponents & "ran against" one of his supporters "winning" 97% of vote

The result was so absurd that in a two person race, the second candidate, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, managed to come in third. He was defeated by spoiled ballots.

Conditionality won't destabilize Egypt nor will it undermine its ability to fight terrorism. Quite the contrary. Locking up peaceful protestors alongside actual terrorists turns Egyptian prisons into sites of radicalization.

Using the security apparatus to monitor and persecute peaceful critics while trying them in terrorism courts wastes limited resources that should focus on real security threats.

Conditionality will show the opposite of what red carpet state visits signal, that Western govts are serious about their committment to seeing an improvement in the rights situation in Egypt. Conditionality shows it's a real priority rather than a talking point to get through

Without attaching teeth to demands for respect for human rights, Egyptian officials will reasonably assume that statements on human rights are little more than rhetorical necessities to appease domestic audiences in the West while the material relationship continues uninterrupted