Post date: Aug 18, 2013 7:5:15 PM
An increasing number of U.S. lawmakers call on the U.S. government to suspend its $1.5 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt following a violent crackdown that has left more than 800 dead.
WASHINGTON, D.C, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 18, 2013) (NBC) - A growing bipartisan chorus of U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday (August 18) that the United States should suspend its $1.5 billion in military and economic aid to Egypt following a violent crackdown on protesters that has left more than 800 dead.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on Thursday (August 15) announced that normal cooperation with Cairo could not continue amid the crackdown and announced the cancellation of military exercises with Egypt next month.But he stopped short of cutting off U.S. aid to Egypt, which lately has been running about $1.55 billion a year, with $1.3 billion of that provided to the military.
There have been calls in the last week from both ends of the U.S. political spectrum for Obama to follow a U.S. law that triggers an aid cutoff if a military coup against a democratically elected government has taken place.
Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she believed it was time to cut off aid.
"With the recent violent crackdown, I do not see how we can continue aid. I believe it must be suspended, because unfortunately, I think, the military has got the impression, particularly with the president not asking for aid to be suspended when he spoke this week, that whatever they do we will continue our aid so I do support suspending aid at this time," Ayotte said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.
Senator Jack Reed, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said Congress should pass legislation cutting off the aid, while giving Obama the flexibility to maintain it if he believes it is in the U.S. national security interest.
"We have to have a policy that expresses our outrage, really, at the military but also gives the president the tools to - we hope - engage them," Reed told "Meet the Press."
The White House declined to comment on Sunday (August 18) about the growing calls for suspending aid.
Untangling the aid relationship with Cairo would not be simple and could be costly for the United States as well as Egypt.
A special financing arrangement Cairo uses could leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bill for billions of dollars in equipment Egypt already has ordered on credit, and companies like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics that build military hardware for Egypt would be affected by aid restrictions.