Egypt and the United States’ need mutual trust and improved military cooperation for Cairo to be able to combat surging terrorism, said Steven A. Cook a member at the US think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
In an article in Foreign Policy magazine, Cook said that Egyptians are in a need for assurances for US support following decades of tension. US-Egypt relations soured after the ouster of Egypt’s first elected president Mohamed Morsy in 2013, when the US was critical of the military intervention and subsequent crackdown on political dissent.
“American officials have been nudging the Egyptians to take a fresh look at their military doctrine and alter it to what the Pentagon calls ‘21st-century threats’, such as terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” Cook wrote.
Egyptian generals have, however, stonewalled the US attempts, he added. The writer added that the fact that military equipment the US provides for Egypt is inferior to what the Israel, Washington’s undisposable ally, can buy.
According to Cook Egypt’s generals “want to be reassured of American support, of which there are no better symbols than brand new F-16s, Apache helicopters and tanks,” noting that “until Washington does something to ameliorate this suspicion, it will get nowhere with the Egyptians on issues of the Sinai and border security, harming the interests of both countries.”
