Egypt condemns US decision of suspending military aid

Egypt lashed out Thursday at the U.S. decision to suspend military aid to the Arab country amid concerns of mounting violence after the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi. The U.S. State Department said Wednesday that it would withhold deliveries of tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters and missiles as well as 260 million U.S. dollars in cash assistance from Egypt. Describing it as a wrong decision, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement that Egypt will not surrender to U.S. pressure. Some angry parties even demanded review of the Camp David peace accord with Israel. Egypt has been one of the world largest recipients of U.S. aid since it signed the peace treaty with Israel. However, the White House reiterated that it would continue support to Egypt's interim government, including aid for health and education sectors, as well as support to the Egyptian army to fight terrorism in Sinai. Analysts said the suspension of U.S. aid would neither affect the political transition in Egypt, nor the bilateral relations. EXPECTED DECISION The U.S State Department said that the delivery of certain large-scale military systems and cash assistance to Egypt will be held until the Egyptian government can achieve credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections. "This decision is not a new one. It was already taken three months ago, when U.S. President Barack Obama ordered to review U.S. aid to Egypt," said General Mohamed Ali Belal, former deputy chief of staff of the Egyptian army. Belal said that the decision doesn't represent any threat to the Egyptian army as it already has enough weapons to combat any external aggression. "At the same time Egypt is not likely at the moment to be involved in any wars as it keeps good relations with all the world countries." However, Belal said U.S. policies towards Egypt are unclear and perplexed. "They declared that they will continue to provide Egypt with equipment to fight terrorism and at the same time they refused to deliver the Apache Helicopters that are used for fighting terrorism in Sinai," Belal said. Wahid Abdel Maguid, a political expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, said this announcement was expected as deliveries of military equipment had already been halted and joint military exercise was cancelled several month ago. LIMITED EFFECT ON POLITICAL TRANSITION Egypt will not take any counter-measures because it understands that the U.S. decision will not have any impact on Egypt's economy or army, Belal said. The budget crisis may be the reason behind its confusing policy towards Egypt, he said, adding that the timing of the decision came to serve some political interests for the Obama administration inside the United States and also send a message to the Islamic powers in the region that it is still pressuring Egypt. "As for the financial aid, the United States also suspended part of it. This financial aid is about 250 million dollars with most of it being spent on NGOs that promote democracy. Also a big part goes to the workers in the aid programme in Egypt," Belal said. The real amount of financial aid of which Egypt makes use is nearly 60 million dollars which is a small sum of money compared with the aid from Arab countries, he added. Abdel Maguid said the cut of U.S. aid will not affect the political transition in Egypt. "If it has to make any change, it should have been happened three months ago when the first cargo were held," he said, adding that the successful implementation of the roadmap to democracy in Egypt will end tension and bring the bilateral ties back to normal. Hours after the White House's announcement to halt the aid to Egypt, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that "the decision was not a withdrawal from our relationship."