OBAMA TREADS CAREFULLY ON EGYPT AS HE FACES PROTESTS HIMSELF
President Barack Obama has found himself in an delicate position over his response to the crisis in Egypt.
In a carefully worded statement
yesterday, he said he was 'deeply concerned' by the military's
move to topple the government and suspend Egypt's
constitution.
He also urged Egypt's military
to hand back control to a democratic, civilian government
without delay.
But he stopped short of calling
the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi a coup.
The classification is an
important one as his administration will be forced to decide
whether it must suspend the $1.5 billion a year it provides to
Egypt in military and economic assistance that is considered a
critical U.S. national security priority.
Under U.S. law, the government
must stop foreign aid to any nation whose elected leader is
ousted in a coup d'etat, opening the door to the possibility
of yet more unrest.
According to the IPS news
agency, U.S. officials are also very concerned about the
possibility of a violent protest against the coup by Morsi's
Muslim Brotherhood, which remains Egypt's most organised
institution after the military.
Obama has also faced a wave of
protests himself, with placards claiming the U.S. president
'allied himself with terrorists' and 'Obama supports
terrorism' being displayed in Cairo over the last few days.
Many Egyptians are unhappy at
U.S. foreign policy in their country and the fact Washington
supported former dictator Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in
January 2011 in a similar uprising.
The Obama administration may
also now have to fend off further accusations from Republicans
at home who argue that the president's
handling of the Arab Spring has been a failure.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2354953/Egypt-Muslim-Brotherhood-leader-arrested-deaths-protesters-Egyptian-army-hunt-THREE-HUNDRED-followers-deposed-president-Morsi.html#ixzz2Y5g69m5DSubmitted by: Nancy Battle
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