Mounting protests in Cairo against Egypt’s president are prompting bipartisan unease among U.S. lawmakers, with the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee calling Friday for Egyptian authorities to avoid a violent crackdown against demonstrators.

“Egyptian security services should demonstrate restraint and commitment to the protection of the rights of Egypt’s citizens,” Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel and ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul said in a joint statement. “We call on the Egyptian government to release all peaceful protestors, journalists, lawyers, and members of civil society.”

The plea came amid claims by rights groups that some 2,000 people have been arrested in Egypt since last weekend, when protesters took to the streets to call for the ouster of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

Regional news reports said the country was bracing Friday for a second weekend of demonstration, and that the El-Sissi government was tightening security in several Egyptian cities to confront protesters who’ve called for a “million-man march” against the president.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, Egypt’s Ministry of Interior warned on Thursday of “decisive” action against any attempts to “destabilize peace.” The news network — owned by the government with Qatar, which has a factious relationship with the El-Sissi government — said that among those arrested so far was Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University and well-known columnist, who called for Mr. El-Sissi’s departure in a Twitter post.

Mr. Engel and Mr. McCaul did not name Mr. Nafaa in their statement Friday but said broadly that “the United States places the highest value on freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

“We recognize and affirm that Egyptians have the right to protest peacefully and to exercise that right without fear of retribution,” Mr. Engel, New York Democrat, and Mr. McCaul, Texas Republican, said.

The developments may present a new foreign policy headache for President Trump, who is widely seen to have a close relationship with Mr. El-Sissi and views the Egyptian president as a key partner on countering terrorism in Libya, which neighbors Egypt to the west in North Africa.

Mr. Trump heaped praise on the Mr. El-Sissi when the two meet earlier this week at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering in New York.

“It’s an honor to be with my friend,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “He is a real leader. He’s done some things that are absolutely amazing in a short period of time. When he took over not so long ago, [Egypt] was in turmoil, and it’s not in turmoil now.”

“We have a long-term, great relationship,” Mr. Trump added. “It’s better than ever before. We’re doing a lot of trading, a lot of business. We’re talking about many different locations like Libya.”

National security analysts have warned that political instability in Egypt could create an opening for jihadists operating in nearby Libya to exploit with violence.

Mr. El-Sissi has drawn criticism from rights groups for enforcing tight controls on media and civil society since coming power in Cairo six years ago in a military coup that drove Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi from office. Morsi had been elected president after the 2011 Arab Spring revolution in Egypt but was facing major protests himself by 2013. He died in 2019 after collapsing during a court hearing.

After taking over the government that year, Mr. El-Sissi’s new government classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization — a move that drew sharp criticism from Islamists, who view the Brotherhood as a peaceful purveyor of political Islam.

It has not been clear in recent days whether underground elements of the Brotherhood, which had held a significant chunk of seats as an opposition political bloc in Egypt’s parliament prior to 2011, may be driving the current protests.

Mr. El-Sissi suggested during a press conference before his meeting with Mr. Trump this week that he blames the outlawed group for the demonstrations. “You will always find something like this in our region, especially with political Islam,” the Egyptian president said when asked by a reporter for a general comment on the protests.

The Egyptian president has made no secret of his distaste for political Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood in recent years, having joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in a diplomatic and economic blockade against Qatar, which the other four nations blame for backing the Brotherhood and supporting terrorists.

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