CAIRO (IPS) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last
week paid a highly-publicized visit to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicentre of
Egypt’s recent popular uprising. But young leaders of the revolution declined
an invitation to meet with her, citing Washington’s tepid support for
anti-government protesters over the course of the 18-day rebellion.

“We refused to meet Clinton due to the U.S.
administration’s vacillating position and contradictory statements as the
revolution unfolded,” Islam Lutfi, spokesman for Egypt’s Coalition of
Revolutionary Youth, told IPS. “The decision also expressed our rejection
of 50 years of faulty U.S. policies in the region.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listens to questions after her meeting with Morocco’s Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri at the State Department in Washington, March 23, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Young

Shortly after her arrival to Egypt on Mar. 15, Clinton met
with newly-appointed Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi. The two
reportedly exchanged views on the precarious political situation in the Middle
East, particularly in Libya —- currently the target of U.S.-Europe-led
air-strikes —and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Early the next day, Clinton was given a ten-minute walking
tour of Tahrir Square amid tight security. “To see where this revolution
happened — and all that it has meant to the world — is extraordinary for
me,” she was quoted as saying.

Shortly afterward, Clinton met with Egyptian Prime Minister
Essam Sharaf and Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council
of the Armed Forces (SCAF), with whom she reportedly discussed bilateral ties
and the regional situation. Clinton is the highest-ranking U.S. official to
visit Egypt since Mubarak handed over executive authority to the SCAF on
February 11 after 30 years in power.

At her meeting with Sharaf, Clinton stressed Washington’s
stated support for democratic transformation in the region. She also confirmed
that U.S. financial assistance to Egypt, which she described as a
“strategic partner,” would be maintained.

“I am so looking forward to help in any way that we
can,” she was quoted as saying. “There is so much to be done and the
United States is ready to help in every way possible to translate what happened
in Tahrir Square to a new reality for Egypt.”

Clinton went on to announce that Washington had earmarked 90
million U.S. dollars for immediate economic assistance to Egypt, while the U.S.
Congress had been asked to establish a 60-million-dollar Egyptian-U.S. fund to
support the Egyptian private sector. This comes in addition to the roughly two
billion dollars in U.S. economic and military assistance Egypt receives every
year.

Sharaf, for his part, told Clinton that Egypt “seeks to
achieve the transition to real democracy, which guarantees the participation of
all segments of society in political life,” according to the state-run
MENA news agency.

Later the same day, Clinton held a 90-minute closed-door
meeting with Egyptian civil-society representatives and a handful of political
party leaders.

“We spoke with her about the consequences of the
revolution and the current political situation in Egypt,” Hafez Abu Saeda,
head of the Cairo-based Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and meeting
participant, told IPS. “But several of us also sharply criticized
Washington’s wavering position throughout the course of the revolution.”

On Jan. 25, as mounting street protests in Egypt morphed
into a nationwide revolt, Clinton had notoriously stated that “the
Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the
legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.”

According to Abu Saeda, Egyptian representatives that met
with Clinton also slammed the U.S. for its practice of coupling its strategic
interests in the region to dictatorial Arab regimes.

“We told her that all these regimes were on the verge
of imminent collapse and that Washington would be better served by linking its
interests with the will of the people,” he said. “Several meeting
participants also urged Clinton to throw U.S. support behind the ongoing
popular uprisings in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen against the dictatorial regimes
in those countries.”

Clinton was even less warmly received by Egypt’s influential
Coalition of Revolutionary Youth. Virtually all members of the coalition, which
comprises several youth-oriented revolutionary groups that were heavily
involved in the uprising, turned down formal invitations to meet with the U.S.
secretary of state.

“The U.S. State Department invited several of us to
meet with Clinton,” said the coalition’s Lutfi. “But we refused due
to the U.S. administration’s wavering stance during the revolution, which
remained ambiguous right up until Mubarak’s departure.”

In a statement on its Facebook page issued on Mar. 14, the
coalition cited additional reasons for its decision not to meet with Clinton.
“The U.S. administration only looks after its own interests, even if these
interests conflict with those of the Egyptian people; the U.S. administration
supports oppressive regimes throughout the region,” the statement read.

As for the financial largesse promised by Clinton to Egypt,
Lutfi was no less dismissive.

“The U.S. has given Egypt some two billion dollars
annually for the last 30 years as a bribe to allow it to intervene in Egypt’s
domestic affairs and ensure that Egypt honours the Camp David peace agreement
with Israel,” he said. “From now on, all foreign funding should only
be accepted on the condition that in doesn’t come with political strings
attached or promote values alien to Egyptian culture.”

Echoing a common opinion among Egyptian revolutionary circles
of all political stripes, Lutfi added: “We really don’t want anything from
America — neither intervention in our sovereign affairs nor advice on ‘good
governance’ and democracy.”

During her two-day stay in Egypt, Clinton did not meet with
— nor request to meet with — representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s
largest opposition force.