Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Monday that the U.S. “overestimated” its leverage in Egypt after violent clashes continued despite several top officials’ efforts to diffuse the situation.
“We obviously don’t have the leverage that other countries have in the region,” Corker said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.” “We have overestimated what our leverage is and underestimated, as I said before, the leverage that Saudi Arabia has and the Emirates have.”
Saudi Arabia’s minister of foreign affairs pledged Monday that Islamic countries would fill the gaps should Western nations withhold aid to Egypt. The U.S. supplies $1.3 billion to the nation in military aid each year; but along with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia has already pledged $12 billion in aid to Egypt’s new government since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in July.
“There’s no question the monetary part of this is minuscule compared to what’s being supplanted by these other countries,” Corker added. “But we still have influence. We need to use it as much as we can.”
The Tennessee senator said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he had “no doubt” the bloodshed in Egypt last week will lead the U.S. to suspend foreign aid until it can “recalibrate” its relationship with the conflicted nation.
