Raising human rights concerns, the Biden administration has cancelled USD 130 million military aid to Egypt on Friday.
This comes just days after it had approved a massive USD 2.5 billion arms sale to the country.
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On Friday, the State Department of the US said that Egypt had not met the conditions to receive the USD 130 million in foreign military financing, which has been on hold since September. The money would be shifted to other programmes, it said, without elaborating.
While announcing the cancellation, the department did not mention the USD 2.5 billion sale of military transport planes and radar systems, which it approved on Tuesday.
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In September, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the release of USD 300 million in foreign military financing to Egypt but withheld another USD 130 million unless the government addressed ‘specific human-rights related conditions’ by the end of January 2022.
“The deadline for meeting those conditions will soon pass. The (government of Egypt) made notable progress on the conditions but to date has not met them all. Therefore, after January 30, the secretary intends to reprogramme the USD 130 million to other national security priorities,” the department said.
(With inputs from agencies)
