NEW YORK // Egypt’s foreign minister travelled to Washington yesterday after the United States decided Cairo was eligible for some of the military and counter-terrorism assistance that was suspended last summer.
Nabil Fahmy’s trip came a day after the US certified that Egypt was upholding its peace treaty with Israel and fighting terrorism.
In a separate development, the US defence secretary Chuck Hagel informed Egypt of Barack Obama’s decision to allow the delivery of 10 Apache attack helicopters that were purchased in early 2011 to help bolster Cairo’s counter-terrorism efforts in the Sinai.
“The secretary noted that we believe these new helicopters will help the Egyptian government counter extremists who threaten US, Egyptian, and Israeli security,” saidPentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby.
The Obama administration had suspended the military assistance to Egypt in October last year to signal its displeasure at the pace Egypt's transition after the military removed the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power.
Egypt has faced a string of bombings and assassinations in the capital and other cities, as well as a strengthening Islamist insurgency in the Sinai region, since the ousting of Mr Morsi.
In the latest attacks, a police brigadier general was killed in Cairo yesterday when a bomb exploded under his car, while another senior officer was killed during a raid on alleged militants in Alexandria.
On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called Mr Fahmy “to inform him that he is certifying to Congress that Egypt is sustaining the strategic relationship with the United States” through its fight against terrorism and by upholding the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, according to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
The delivery of the helicopters, as well as eight F-16 fighter jets, had been suspended after Mr Morsi’s government was toppled, along with some of the annual US$1.3 billion in military funding to Egypt that the US provides.
The certification announced Tuesday could lift the hold on portions of economic aid as well as $650 million to finance preexisting military contracts and counter-terrorism and border security assistance, according to Ms Psaki.
Mr Kerry met with the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate, Mohamed Farid El Tohamy, at the State Department yesterday, for discussions likely to focus on shared security concerns.
But Tuesday’s certification fell far short of normalising the US-Egypt relationship that has been strained by the suspension of aid and Egypt’s domestic crackdown on Islamists and others, which US officials fear will lead to destabilising terrorism and security threats.
Without certification that Egypt’s democratic transition is moving forward, the majority of US military aid will remain suspended.
Mr Kerry “noted that he is not yet able to certify that Egypt is taking steps to support a democratic transition”, Ms Psaki said. “He urged Egypt to follow through on its commitment to transition to democracy — including by conducting free, fair, and transparent elections, and easing restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, and the media”.
There were recent signs in Washington that the State Department and Pentagon had convinced Mr Obama to agree to certify that the democratic transition was proceeding at a satisfactory pace and that the aid could be resumed.
But a number of events, including the trial of several Al Jazeera journalists, the continued killing of pro-Brotherhood protesters, and hundreds of death sentences handed down for the murder of a single police officer forced the administration to hold back, according to Michael Hanna, an expert on US policy in the Middle East at The Century Foundation think tank in New York.
“[This] made it very difficult to take the decision that would need to be taken for certification without the US being made to look silly,” Mr Hanna said. “It’s important not to portray this as the aid relationship being back in place, because it’s not.”
The hold on the delivery of the helicopters, which had been purchased before Mr Morsi was even elected, has been a “major irritant” in the bilateral relationship and was likely an attempt to “create a little more time and space … to try to put the relationship on what they believe is a more productive footing”, Mr Hanna added.
The public, high-level meetings in Washington this week are also an indication that an “incremental” shift is taking place in US-Egypt relations despite the fact that the relationship is still “interrupted in an important way”, Mr Hanna said.
tkhan@thenational.ae
