US will redirect millions of funds for Egypt to Taiwan and Lebanon

The Biden administration has notified Congress that it will withhold $85 million in aid to Egypt that had been conditioned on Cairo's progress in its treatment of political prisoners, instead diverting that money to Taiwan and Lebanon, sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

The administration said it would redirect $55 million worth of that funding to Taiwan and $30 million to Lebanon, the sources said.

However, the administration will allow Cairo to access $235 million of the total of $320 million in foreign military financing that is conditioned on human rights issues, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

The US provides more than $1 billion in foreign military financing to Egypt and the vast majority of it is not conditional.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "determined that it is in the US national security interest to waive certain human rights related conditions" and allow the $235 million to go to Egypt.

"What I'm describing today reflects our current assessment that Egypt's cooperation merits the national security waiver for fiscal year 2022," the official said.

"Our position on the very serious human rights situation in Egypt absolutely has not changed and we're going to continue to raise those issues in Egypt consistently and at the most senior levels," they added.