Foreign Ministry spokesperson Badr Abdel Atty told London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat on Friday that calls for dispensing with U.S. aid or cancelling Egypt's peace treaty with Israel make no sense.
Abdel Atty also said that Egypt will not allow any party to interfere in its internal political affairs, and that the implementation and timing of the roadmap will be an exclusively Egyptian decision.
He stressed that Egypt is committed to the roadmap, according to the desires of the Egyptian people.
He added that the United States has postponed aid but not stopped it entirely, stressing that this would not affect Egypt's economic or military capacity in any way. “Yet this came at a bad time because Egypt is fighting a war with terrorism,” he claimed.
Still, the spokesperson reiterated the partnership between Egypt and the United States. “The United States is eager to cooperate fully with the interim government,” he stressed.
He explained that aid is part of the two countries' strategic, economic and cultural relations.
The United States was going to provide Egypt with tanks, fighter jets, helicopters and missiles, in addition to US$260 million in cash, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and told him the United States would continue to assist in issues related to the Sinai security, the fight against terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
