Israel Urges US to Maintain $1.3 Billion Egypt Aid
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by News Editor
President Obama speaks in Cairo in 2009. Photo: Chuck Kennedy.
Fox News / AFP – Israel has urged Washington not to suspend its annual $1.3 billion in aid to Cairo in the wake of the ouster of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi by the military, press reports said on Tuesday.
Under US law, all military and economic aid must be suspended to any country where the government is overthrown by the military, although Washington has not yet determined whether it considers the June 30 removal of Morsi was actually a coup – a claim made by the Muslim Brotherhood, to which the ousted president belongs.
According to a senior US official quoted by Haaretz newspaper, Israel’s top political echelon had engaged in “marathon phone calls” with Washington over the weekend, warning that any suspension of aid could impact on Israel’s security and even undermine its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned US Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon spoke with Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel and Israel’s National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror consulted with his US counterpart, Susan Rice, he said.
