President Barack Obama will officially announce in the upcoming days that it will stop "some" aid to the Egyptian military as a response to the continued violence that has erupted since the removal of President Mursi, the Associated Press reports.
The U.S. officials who spoke to AP on anonymous conditions because they're not yet authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the move follows a violent week in Egypt as many were killed in a standoff between Mursi supporters and government security forces.
"The reports that we are halting all military assistance to Egypt are false," Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told USA Today. "We will announce the future of our assistance relationship with Egypt in the coming days, but as the president made clear at UNGA (the United Nations General Assembly), that assistance relationship will continue."
Currently, the U.S. provides Egypt with $1.5 billion a year in aid; $1.3 billion is for military assistance and the rest for economic assistance, AP reports. Only 1.3 billion for military assistance will be halted.
Obama's top national security aides recommended the halt in funds this past August, and according to the APObama was due to announce the halt last month, but the debate over military strikes against Syria set the decision back.
U.S. officials told AP that although there will be a change in the aid supplied to Egypt, it's best for U.S. national security interests to keep aid flowing.
While asserting that it had "responded to the desires of millions of Egyptians who believed the revolution had taken a wrong turn" when it deposed Morsi, Obama said the government had since "made decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy," AP reported, and that U.S. support would "depend upon Egypt's progress in pursuing a more democratic path."
The Cairo daily Al-Masry al-Youm published an interview on Wednesday where Gen. Sisi, who leads the current military government, said "we need to be clear here and say they (the U.S.) are keen on continuing the aid and that it is not cut off," he said. "They are trying to take measures that conform with the spirit of the law and deal with what happened in Egypt as the outcome of popular will."
