Pentagon: No Plans to Halt Weapons Deliveries to Egypt

Congressmen Calling for Halt to Aid Amid Regime's Crackdown

Despite growing calls for a number of top members of the US Congress to halt the $1.5 billion in foreign aid to Egypt, the vast, vast majority of which is military in nature, the Pentagon insists it has no plans to stop delivering weapons or other aid to the Egyptian government.

There’s a difference between halting the aid and reviewing it,” insisted Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan, who said there were no plans to alter the scheduled deliveries of military aid.

During the early years of the Bush Administration, US aid to Egypt was in excess of $2 billion annually, but the level of non-military aid, particularly for pro-democracy reforms, has been slashed in recent years. Military aid has remained flat, and looks to continue to do so despite the massive uprising.

Col. Lapan reiterated that the Egyptian military has acted “professionally and with restraint,” but US aid has also gone to the police forces responsible for some of the most serious violence in the early days of the protests

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.