U.S. releases Egypt military aid for strategic goals

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Obama administration has decided to release military aid for Egypt that has been in question since the country acted to prosecute U.S. and Egyptian pro-democracy workers, Bloomberg reported.

The U.S. gives Egypt $1.3 billion a year in military aid that must be spent on U.S. goods. Weapons the Foreign Military Financing pays for include General Dynamics Corp. (GD) M1A1 tanks that are assembled outside Cairo and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) F-16 fighter jets built at Fort Worth, Texas.

The administration will “disburse security funding as needed to meet contractual obligations, and we will maintain the flexibility to make adjustments” if conditions require it, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in an e-mailed statement.

The administration has been reviewing whether Egypt complies with a congressional requirement to certify that the government is promoting freedoms and rights, or whether it should receive a waiver on national security grounds. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce the waiver decision, citing national security interests, Nuland said.

The decision reflects the Obama administration’s “overarching goal: to maintain our strategic partnership with an Egypt made stronger and more stable by a successful transition to democracy,” Nuland said.

The certification provision was pushed by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee foreign operations subcommittee, which oversees State Department spending.