US Secretary of State John Kerry has again refrained from characterising the ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi by the military as a coup.

BBC

Egypt is still not a coup in Washington

By Kim Ghattas BBC News, Washington
 

 

Washington's hesitation to use the term has drawn accusations from the pro-Morsi camp that the US was complicit in the coup. For the White House, it is an on-going and agonising determination that has legal and possibly even security implications.
"This is obviously an extremely complex and difficult situation," said Mr Kerry, speaking in Amman during a news conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.
"The fact is we need to take the time necessary because of the complexity of the situation to evaluate what has taken place," he said.
Mr Kerry, and other American officials, have repeatedly said it was important to take the time to determine what exactly had happened in Egypt - even while prominent US lawmakers like Senator John McCain, analysts, and supporters of Mr Morsi, have said it is clearly a coup.
Under US law, most aid must stop to "any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d'etat or decree" or toppled in "a coup d'état or decree in which the military plays a decisive role".
The US provides $1.15bn (£756m) of aid a year to Egypt, $1.13bn of it military.
But the ''coup legislation" does not set a deadline, so the administration can use delaying tactics before reaching the legal determination, while it looks into the possibility of allowing aid to continue and hopes that the situation in Egypt improves rapidly.
'Get a waiver'
Mr Kerry expressed concern about instability in Egypt and called for an end to political arrests but said it was too soon to judge how the situation would unfold.
In the build up to the ouster of Mr Morsi, the US was clearly uncomfortable with the prospect of a coup but failed to convince Mr Morsi to compromise with the opposition or push the military to find a different way forward.

 

John Kerry has said it is too early to know what will happen in Egypt

 

But Washington had never been comfortable with Mr Morsi as a president either, so it has now come around to accepting the new phase.
William Burns, deputy secretary of state, said on a visit to Cairo earlier this week: "Despite our concerns about the developments of the past two weeks, we believe that the on-going transition is another opportunity... to create a democratic state that protects human rights and the rule of law.
"We hope it will be a chance to learn some of the lessons and correct some of the mistakes of the past two years."
Although almost everyone in Washington agrees the administration of President Barack Obama should say it was a coup, opinions are divided about whether the US should suspend aid or find ways to maintain the flow.
Marwan Muasher, former Jordanian foreign minister and vice-president at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace overseeing Middle East studies, said: ''The US' best strategy now is to call it a coup, to respect US law, but to get a waiver, because it's not necessarily constructive to stop aid to Egypt."



Read More Here

Related articles

• 556 Egyptian academics rebuff military coup
• Kerry: Ousting Morsi may have averted civil war
• Kerry: Ousting Morsi may have averted civil war in Egypt
• Egypt is still not a coup in Washington
• John Kerry: Egypt may have dodged civil war by ousting Mohammed Morsi
• Kerry: No Rush to Judgment on Morsi Ouster
• Erdogan to ElBaradei: You're not elected
• Morsi's ouster not a mily coup: Egyptian envoy to US