Why Egypt’s Exiles Are Especially Terrified
They are anxiously watching how the U.S. responds to the Saudis’ killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
He’s watching how the U.S. treats the Saudi crown prince.
Photographer: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images
For the last six years, Nancy Okail has led a relatively safe life in exile. As the executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, she had a high enough profile that she didn’t worry too much about the anonymous threats and harassment directed by the Egyptian regime she fled.
Then Jamal Khashoggi was killed. “I knew Jamal,” she told me in an interview this week. They were both part of a tight circle of Arab dissidents living in and around Washington. If his murder is blamed on anyone other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, she said, “then this is a license to kill all of us.”