Feb 7, 2019

Egypt cut ties with its top US lobbying firm just days after CBS broadcast a controversial interview with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi that Cairo tried to stop from airing.

The Glover Park Group’s $2 million-per-year contract with the Egyptian Embassy in Washington was terminated Jan. 15, according to lobbying filings reviewed by Al-Monitor. The firm first started working for Cairo in 2013 when Egypt’s long-time lobbyists dropped their contracts following the military coup against sitting President Mohammed Morsi.

The reason for the termination remains unclear. A lobbyist for Glover Park declined to comment, citing company policy. The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Glover Park's fees had in the past been covered by the United Arab Emirates, according to private emails from UAE Ambassador to Washington Yousef al-Otaiba published by The Intercept in 2017.

The split came just nine days after CBS aired a testy "60 Minutes" interview in which the Egyptian president appeared surprised by tough questions about political prisoners and the 2015 massacre of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo’s Rabia Square. The interview also touched on Cairo’s close military cooperation with Israel, a taboo subject in Egypt.

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“Glover Park was hired to help President Sisi make good on his promise to stabilize Egypt. They produced some glossy brochures that showed that,” said Sarah Margon, the Washington director for Human Rights Watch. Since he took office, she said, “things have gone from very bad to a whole lot worse.”