Cairo, Egypt
June 9, 2008

Q: Can we have a statement on the meeting please and what's the aim of the visit?

Cumber: Well, the visit with the Foreign Minister was very successful, it was a bilateral meeting. As you are all aware, I represent the United States as a Special Envoy to the OIC. OIC, as you know, is a fifty-seven member nation that is an inter-governmental organization. It has a ten year program, which I shared with his Excellency the Minister, that United States wants to enhance and further facilitate some of the priorities in this ten year program, including the fact that the United States brings other resources and expertise in the areas of science and technology. Also in terms of education, the United States is proposing that we should put at least in the ten most underdeveloped Muslim countries digital libraries which would give the beneficiaries of those libraries access to over one million publications, in science and technology, social sciences, and other areas, specially working with the enhancement of the status of women in Islam.

Now these initiatives are all exclusively part of the ten year program that the OIC has already engaged. So we are not bringing anything new or any initiative that is beyond and above the mission that the OIC has for itself. So we had a very engaging dialogue and I was asking for Egypt's support on it. We also discussed some of the domestic issues in the United States, especially some of the visitors who are coming and, in shallah, we have made enough progress that Egyptians and non-Egyptians who are coming to the United States, who were previously having some difficulties at the airports, those concerns are being mitigated.

I had a couple of meetings with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff and I also had meetings with Egyptian organizations in the Washington area and in other areas. So we have been working and we have made a lot of progress in those areas, also. So, inshallah, those visiting the United States now will be received with dignity and respect, as expected because that's the core value in America.

The other area that I also shared was that there are a lot of Egyptians whose green cards are on hold because of the name check. That also has been mitigated now inshallah. We are working that the names that will go to the FBI would be, if the FBI does not respond in certain time, which will be very quick, then those prospects who are waiting for these green cards would be issued green cards. So, inshallah, that concern that the Egyptians who live in the United States and who had those concerns we are trying to mitigate.

Q: How much time will the FBI have to respond?

Cumber: We are looking at between thirty and hundred and twenty days, so some of the cases which had been on hold for three to four years now. So we are making progress.

Q: Are you in a tour in the Middle East or are you just visiting Egypt?

Cumber: I have in the last three months that I have been appointed, that is my sixteenth stop. So, I am just coming from Turkey and before that I was in Bangladesh, and then other few countries. So, this is a great opportunity for me, this is the first time in the history of the United States that President Bush has made this appointment and inshallah we will see that this position remains for the long term. So we would be able to work and engage. Because President Bush and the United States as you know are committed to having peace and prosperity and stability for all peoples. And this is part of that appointment process.

Q: Have you asked for any amendments regarding the education system in the Islamic world? I mean Islamic education.

Cumber: Well, remember one thing. This whole perception of the education systems, I think we all should find comfort in our own ways, where we can educate our students so they can be moderate and progressive, responsible citizens, wherever they live. So the United States have no other motive in that space. So we are very clear about that.

Thank you.