CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled Sunday that the Obama administration was ready to return to business as usual with Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former general who led last year’s military takeover.
After a 90-minute meeting with Mr. Sisi, Mr. Kerry said at a news conference here that he had come to reaffirm Washington’s “historic partnership” with Egypt. “We want to see the people of Egypt succeed,” he said, and so he and Mr. Sisi had discussed, “most importantly, our mutual determination for our countries to work together in partnership.”
Mr. Kerry expressed firm confidence that the United States would soon restore all of the aid to Egypt, including $1.3 billion annually to the military that the Obama administration had partly withheld after the takeover.
“I am absolutely confident we will get on track there,” he said, and, addressing a previously suspended shipment of 10 Apache helicopter gunships that the Egyptian military has been especially eager for, Mr. Kerry said he was just as confident “that the Apaches will come, and that they will come very, very soon.”
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