US military aid to Egypt has stopped
August 21, 2013  00:56
The United States has halted military aid to Egypt, a Senate aide said today, describing what would be a rebuke of the once stalwart US ally's crackdown on Islamist opponents and the military ouster of its president. Obama administration officials immediately rejected the claim.

David Carle, an aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said his Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee has been informed the "transfer of military aid was stopped" amid ongoing Egyptian security operations against the Muslim Brotherhood supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

"This is current practice, not necessarily official policy, and there is no indication of how long it will last," Carle said.

Obama administration officials said they were reviewing US aid to Egypt in light of the military's July 3 overthrow of the democratically elected president and the violent confrontations between security forces and demonstrators that have left almost 1000 people dead in the last week. But they say no final decisions have been made, despite State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki's disclosure yesterday that Washington still hasn't delivered some USD 585 million, almost half the annual military aid package, for fiscal year 2013. 
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