WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States signaled to Egypt on Friday it could lose some $1.5 billion in aid if it fails to rein in security forces and allow peaceful protests, raising pressure on a key ally as demonstrations raged.
With thousands of people on the streets despite a nationwide curfew, the protests rocked the Middle East and put the United States in a quandary of its own.
Washington views Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a critical partner -- a linchpin for future Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and a bulwark against Iran's regional clout -- but U.S. officials have stressed this week their long-standing support for democratic reforms in his country.
President Barack Obama and aides have intensified their rhetoric and the threat of a review of the assistance for Egypt raised that pressure to a new level.
Washington gave Cairo $1.3 billion in military aid and $250 million in economic aid in the 2010 fiscal year, making it one of the largest U.S. aid recipients across the globe.
"We will be reviewing our assistance posture based on events that take place in the coming days," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
"We are watching very closely the actions of the government, of the police, of all the security forces and all of those in the military -- that their actions may affect our assistance would be the subject of that review."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed all sides to refrain from violence.
"We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications," she told reporters in Washington, referring to the blocking of Internet social networking sites.
"These protests underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian society, and the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away."
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A U.S. official monitoring the events said the situation was fluid.
"Unless something breaks the current tension, we are approaching the point where either the military has to crack down hard or the regime has to give way," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Steven Cook, an analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, said the United States possesses very little leverage in altering the direction of events in Egypt.
"Any effort on our part ... to provide support to Mubarak is going to be read in Egypt as supporting a crackdown and supporting an inherently nondemocratic regime while people are out in the streets demanding an end to this regime," he said.
Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/Reuters/PoliticsNews/~3/5vhlXxWop3M/us-egypt-usa-idUSTRE70R6A920110128
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