Kerry said "too soon" to judge the path of the Egypt after Morsi

AMMAN, July 17, 2013 (AFP)

United States Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday said it was too early to judge yet the future evolution of the Egypt after the ousting of Mohamed Morsi.

"Very clearly the order must be restored, stability must be restored, the rights must be protected... and the country needs to be able to return to normal business," Kerry during a press conference in Amman.

"We are concerned about the political arrests and we are concerned about people being able to participate," Kerry said.

He added that it was much "too early to pronounce or to judge where it will go."

Monday the Assistant Secretary William Burns was in Cairo, most senior American to visit Egypt since the coup d ' état on 3 July which removed Morsi.

Burns urged Egypt divided factions to engage in dialogue and end to violence, according to comments he made in Cairo broadcast on Arab television channels.

Violence that shook Egypt since the eviction of Morsi has made the "difficult" transition, spokesman of the Department of State Patrick Ventrell said later, but he insisted that Washington was not taking sides.

Washington has refrained from that Morsi was victim of a coup, which would legally oblige a freeze of some 1.5 billion $ in economic and military U.S. aid to Cairo.

Kerry renews annual military aid to Egypt to the bn $1,3

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2013 (AFP)

Secretary of State John Kerry 1.3 billion $ in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt, despite the worries of democratic progress by the new Government of the country, approved last month, a U.S. official said on Friday.

Any help is "carefully considered", indicate the Department Jen Psaki spokesman told journalists, but he felt that the funding was needed to "preserve the important regional interests."

May 10, Kerry quietly approved the transfer of the annual aid, by notifying Congress of his decision, she confirmed.

The move came long before sentencing Tuesday by a Cairo Court that handed down sentences of imprisonment and fines on 43 Egyptian NGO workers and foreigners in what Kerry has denounced as a "political trial."

The penalties are just the latest initiative to increase tensions between Washington and the Government of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi was elected in June year last in what was presented as the first democratic elections ever to Egypt, after the former strongman Hosni Mubarak was ousted by an uprising in early 2011.

But the United States officials and others have warned that the promise of the Egyptian revolution is in danger of hostage, and Morsi opponents accuse it of governing in the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, the party whose ticket he ran in the presidential election.

Psaki defended American approval of Kerry's aid for fiscal year 2013 by saying that it was in the interests of national security and has contributed to such things as the "maintenance of access to the Suez Canal and the prohibition of arms smuggling".

Last year, the Fund took place upwards after the Egyptian authorities first moved against non-governmental organizations financed by the United States. Predecessor of Kerry Hillary Clinton finally gave the go-ahead for the funds to be paid in March.