Egypt Cancels Kushner Meeting After Denial of Aid

Egypt has called off a meeting between presidential adviser (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner and Cairo’s top foreign minister after the U.S. moved to withhold $291 million in aid. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will still meet with the U.S. delegation—led by Kushner—as scheduled, but the decision will have “negative implications,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Egypt sees this measure as reflecting poor judgment of the strategic relationship that ties the two countries over long decades and as adopting a view that lacks an accurate understanding of the importance of supporting Egypt’s stability.” The Obama administration had withheld aid from the Sisi government over concerns about widely reported human-rights abuses.