“Biden has created expectations that so far he has utterly failed to meet [with respect to accountability on human rights in the Middle East].”

“When put in the same position four years ago, the Trump administration was stronger on human rights in Egypt.”

“I’d like to see [the U.S. government] remove the national security waiver entirely to send the strong message that Congress does care about human rights in Egypt, and is unwilling to sit back and wait anymore.”

“It’s hard to reconcile how you can have human rights be at the centre of the relationship when you’re at the same time asking for more than $1bn in military aid, and you don’t want human rights conditions placed on it.”

“What matters, and what we should be watching for, is how the Biden administration responds to Egypt’s human rights disaster beyond this congressionally mandated [human rights] report.”

“[The timing of the approval for an arms sale to Egypt sends] an unfortunate signal of support for President el-Sisi’s military regime and it is devastating that Soltan and his family are forced to endure more of this abuse.”

“At some point I fear that we will see another political explosion in Egypt from below with citizens frustrated that their government and the rulers won’t implement any kind of meaningful steps towards democracy, no matter how modest initially.”

“This sends an important message to the Egyptian government that Congress is deeply concerned with its continued unjust detention of human rights defenders.”

“It’s been a really steadily escalating campaign of targeting and repression, using lots of different tools… And of course there are, you know, very difficult circumstances on the ground for anyone who wants to engage politically.”