President Mohamed Morsi was among the first world leaders to congratulate the re-elected US President Barack Obama.

According to presidential spokesman Yasser Ali, President Morsi congratulated Obama and the US people. In his note, Morsi also urged President Obama to work to boost bilateral relations in a way that would serve the interests of both countries and the Egyptian and American peoples.

Morsi is likely to visit Washington to meet with Obama and his new administration in the spring of 2013. “Somewhere between the end of February and the beginning of April,” suggested one official.

Meanwhile, officialdom in Cairo is secretly rejoicing over the victory of Obama. It is not a matter of what Obama could grant Egypt so much as relief that Mitt Romney was not elected, sources report.

"We are not expecting any particular support, or anything of the sort, but we have to be grateful that we don’t have Romney in the White House,” said one official on condition of anonymity.

According this official, “Romney would have meant a serious headache, really, because as a first time president he would have been eyeing a second term in office, which means he could — and most probably would — have spent a good part of his four years in the White House trying to impress Israel in every possible way, not excluding rough stances on Egypt.”

Israel has been endlessly complaining to the US over what it qualifies as poor Egyptian security management of the border between Egypt and Israel. “With Romney in office we could have easily anticipated unpleasant statements on this matter, and of course with an elected president and government (in Egypt) one could have expected some replies ... This is not at all what we need on the bilateral Egypt-US front right now,” the same official added.

Other issues Romney may have pressed Egypt on include minority rights, the policies and positions of Islamists, especially Salafists, and Egypt-Middle East relations and conduct.

With Obama now in office for a new four-year term, Egyptian officials are not excluding that these matters will be raised, but they are comfortable that they would be raised in a respectful manner.

Egypt's priority: The economy

Egyptian officials approached by Ahram Online have almost identical priorities they hope the Obama presidency will address: the US economic aid package that was promised upon the removal of ousted president Hosni Mubarak; and advancing agreement over the IMF loan, prompting loans, donations and investment from rich Arab Gulf countries who await the US stamp of approval before channeling funds to post-revolution Egypt.

But this is precisely what Noha El-Shoky, member of the 'Popular Campaign to drop Egypt’s Debts,' is opposed to. Obama, she argued, must come to terms with Egypt's new political realities – he cannot go on pursuing Washington's historical practice of dealing with the government at the expense of the Egyptian popular will.

"Civil society must have its say, especially in the absence of a functioning parliament," El-Shoky insisted.

The Obama administration, El-Shoky added, must talk to Egyptian civil society before offering aid packages, scrapping debts or extending loans. 

"How can the US launch aid projects without knowing for sure that this is a priority for the Egyptian people?" she asked. "How can it know that this is a priority in the absence both of parliament and a direct dialogue with civil society – by which I mean genuine civil society, not the cosmetic bodies that ultimately serve the government's agenda."

El-Shoky further believes that the Obama administration should urge the IMF to engage with local civil society before finalising any loan agreements.

"We've heard that the IMF is conducting consultations on the loan, yet we don’t know the criteria set for the entities included in these consultations," insisted El-Shoky, who is very apprehensive about the potentially adverse impact of such loans on the national economy.

"There is no transparency about the outcome of these consultations or the terms of the loan, so they can't be discussed by the public," she added. 

Osama El-Ghazali Harb, for his part, a political scientist and activist, is sceptical about the chances of Obama acting in the way El-Shoky proposes, and is more sceptical still about President Mohamed Morsi responding to such demands from Obama.

In his opinion, Obama’s new presidency will offer no change in Egyptian-American relations, neither on the political front nor the economic front. “It will be more or less the same,” Harb suggests.

According to Harb, the Americans are not really mindful of Egyptian democracy. “Washington looks at Egypt essentially from the perspective of Israeli interests. Washington is not as keen on Egyptian democracy as it is keen on Israeli interests, and this is why it would, I think, avoid any confrontation with any Egyptian government that Israel is okay with.”

Harb added: “Judging by the way things have been going, the Morsi regime is well aware of this fact and is acting to avoid giving Israel a reason to be unhappy with it.”

Unlike some Egyptian diplomats who told Ahram Online they were “hoping” that Obama would use his second presidency to work on a grand peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, Harb is not hopeful on that front. He thinks neither the regional terrain is ready, nor is Egypt in good political shape to help advance new ideas and plans for Middle East peace.

By 2016, when Obama will exit the White House for good, Harb argues, Middle East peace matters will still be pending, as they were when he first entered the Oval Office four years ago.