RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Egypt has sent a group of its top generals to Washington, D.C. They're here for meetings at the Pentagon, the State Department and with Congress. Egypt doesn't like new conditions lawmakers have placed on U.S. aid. The U.S. is furious with the way Egypt has been treating American groups promoting democracy there. At least three Americans have taken shelter in the U.S. embassy in Cairo, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland calls it a unique situation. Several Americans haven't been able to leave Egypt so now the U.S. embassy is offering them refuge.
VICTORIA NULAND: We do not feel that they are in physical danger at the moment. That is a different matter than whether they are being persecuted in the Egyptian judicial system.
KELEMEN: Egyptian authorities raided 17 non-governmental groups or NGOs last December, including three U.S. funded organizations. And despite offering assurances to the U.S. at the time that the crackdown would end, the legal troubles have only intensified in recent weeks. Nuland says this will be a major topic for the visiting delegation from Egypt.
NULAND: This particular visit was planned before we ended up in this particular situation with the NGOs in Cairo. However, you can be assured that in every meeting they have with the administration, and I would venture to guess in every meeting that they're going to have with Congress, that this situation will come up.
KELEMEN: Lawmakers have placed conditions on the $1.3 billion a year that the U.S. gives to Egypt's military. In order for that money to continue to flow, the Obama administration has to certify that the country is staying on the path to democracy. And that's unlikely, says Michele Dunne, an expert on Egypt at the Atlantic Council.
MICHELE DUNNE: Right now under current conditions it would be extremely difficult for the administration either to certify that the Egyptian government is meeting the conditions or to use the national security waiver because members of Congress are very angry about what has happened. And they really see this closing down of the NGO's and particularly the American NGO's as being a direct threat and an insult to the United States.
KELEMEN: Some lawmakers complained last week about several former members of Congress who had been lobbying on behalf of the Egyptian government and over the weekend Egypt and its high paid lobbyists parted ways. Dunne says that was yet another sign of a downturn in relations. She says it was unwise for the Egyptian military to pick this fight with the U.S. and put at risk U.S. aid.
DUNNE: We're seeing, you know, an Egyptian government headed by military officials who are much less sophisticated politically. And I think they have sort of gotten themselves into a situation here, a conflict with the United States, and they are maybe not quite sure how to get out of it.
KELEMEN: Dunne doesn't see any quick solutions, especially with Egypt's minister of international cooperation continuing her campaign to control the democracy aid dollars that flow into Egypt. The State Department says Egypt can resolve this by closing investigations into non-governmental groups, lifting a travel ban that has stranded some Americans and letting these groups register and operate as they do in many other countries around the world.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
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