WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump held private meetings Monday with one of the United States' most important Arab allies, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, kicking off a week of high-stakes international diplomacy.
El-Sissi arrived at the White House just before noon EDT. Trump emerged from the West Wing to greet the Egyptian leader _ the first Egyptian head of state to make such a visit since 2009 _ amid military guards bearing flags representing the 50 states.
Ahead of el-Sissi's arrival at the White House, the Secret Service cleared Lafayette Park, across the street, of protesters.
"We agree on so many things," Trump said of el-Sissi as the two leaders met inside the White House and shook hands. El-Sissi, Trump said, has "done a fantastic job in a very difficult situation. We are very much behind Egypt and the people of Egypt. ...You have a great friend and ally in the United States, and in me."
El-Sissi responded: "I've had a deep appreciation and admiration of your unique personality" and the fact that Trump has been "standing very strong ... to counter this evil ideology," an allusion to Islamist-inspired terrorism. El-Sissi spoke in Arabic and his words were translated into English.
In sharp contrast to the Obama administration, Trump was not expected to raise crucial issues such as human rights, the president's aides said. Instead, the daylong session was aimed at "rebooting" a bilateral relationship at times strained in the past, a senior administration official said.
At $1.3 billion a year, Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, after Israel. In exchange, Egypt is one of the few Arab countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel and serves as a backstop control over the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Planned budget cuts that would gut foreign aid may put some of Egypt's money in danger, but administration officials said Egypt's "security" will not be threatened.
Jordan's King Abdullah goes to the White House on Wednesday, and then Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a two-day summit with Trump at his resort in Florida.
The Trump administration has had unusually kind words for el-Sissi, an often heavy-handed strongman who won election in 2014 with 93 percent of the vote after leading a bloody crackdown on Islamist and other opponents.
Trump has cited el-Sissi's "courage" in fighting Islamic State, the terrorist group that has made inroads in the Sinai peninsula and other parts of Egypt and killed dozens of Egyptians, including Coptic Christians, in attacks.
In 2013, the Obama administration suspended the $1.3 billion aid package after the Egyptian military, led at the time by el-Sissi, overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected president. Thousands of Egyptian dissidents have been jailed or killed since.
But the Trump administration has indicated human rights will not be a public priority. The senior official said it was "most effective" to handle such issues "in a private, more discreet way."
"Inviting (el-Sissi) for an official visit to Washington as tens of thousands of Egyptians rot in jail and when torture is again the order of the day is a strange way to build a stable strategic relationship," Sarah Margon, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said.
Obama restored the military aid package, which included Cairo's purchase of a dozen F-16 fighter jets, in early 2015 as he sought support from the region's Sunni leaders for the U.S.-brokered international Iran nuclear deal.
However, the Obama government slated for 2018 an end to the so-called cash-flow financing system, which allows Egypt to place advance orders for expensive U.S. weaponry. Trump administration officials said they were prepared to re-examine ending cash-flow financing in their conversations with el-Sissi and his delegation.
