US Avoids the Word "Coup" to Safeguard Help to Egypt

The United States government resists calling the overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi a coup d’etat. The Egyptian army led the upheaval; at the moment its stance cannot be predicted or defined, circumstances that guarantee $1.5 billion annually in military and economic help to Egypt. That is what William Burns, the number two in the State Department, told members of Congress in a closed-door meeting just one day after the Pentagon decided to suspend the shipment of four F-16s to the African country.

Since July 3, when Morsi was removed from power, the White House has avoided calling the actions that occurred in Egypt a coup, a designation that, according to U.S. law, would prohibit the delivery of any type of assistance to the country. “The law does not require us to make a formal determination […] as to whether a coup took place, and it is not in our national interest to make such a determination,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday, after insisting that the conclusions at which the Administration’s lawyers arrived were “consistent with our national security interests.”

The United States is Egypt’s principal military partner, and it fears that a suspension of financial support would jeopardize the country’s role as a stabilizer in the Middle East. Israel has also expressed concern about the elimination of its economic and military collaboration with the Egyptian army, a pillar stabilizing the peace agreement signed between the two countries in 1979.

Washington sees this help as a way to pressure the Egyptian military command and influence the nation’s transition to democracy. Last Wednesday the Pentagon suspended the consignment of four F-16s to Egypt after being assured that the instability in the country would not paralyze the delivery. The decision is a sign of distrust from the Obama Administration in the face of the increasingly chaotic situation that surrounds the new interim government in Cairo.

This measure is the first concrete action that the Obama Administration has taken since the crisis of power erupted in Egypt. However, it does not suggest a change in the White House’s strategy, nor in that of the Department of Defense, which announced that it would not suspend joint military exercises, which were interrupted only in 2011, when Hosni Mubarak was overthrown after the Arab Spring.

The decision to continue aid has the support of much of Congress, but has also caused criticism from influential senators like Republican John McCain, who said last Thursday that the Administration’s decision “would gravely hurt the nation’s reputation.”*

*Editor’s note: While an accurate translation, this quote could not be sourced.