Egypt warned after Obama cancels joint military exercises; aid to continue (Storify)
US President Barack Obama makes a statement on Egypt August 15, 2013, in Chilmark, Massachusetts. Obama said Thursday the United States has canceled military exercises with Egypt to protest the killing of hundreds of protesters. Obama warned that Egypt had entered a ‘more dangerous path’ but stopped short of sending $1.3 billion in annual military aid.
President Barack Obama announced that he was canceling a joint military exercise with Egypt just a day after hundreds were killed in a government crackdown of opposition demonstrators in Cairo.
"As a result, this morning we notified the Egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise, which was scheduled for next month," he told reporters in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where he is on vacation.
Obama condemned the violence and said of Egypt that "our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual.”
“The Egyptian people deserve better than what we’ve seen,” Obama said.
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The cancelation of Bright Star, the joint military exercises, did not prompt a termination of $1.3 billion in annual military aid the Washington gives Cairo.
The US has so far refused to call the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi a coup, which would force it by law to end military aid.
Bright Star was cancelled in 2011 during the initial unrest but the exercises were to restart this year.
Egyptian estimates put the death toll at 525, while others say the number is closer to 700 dead, with hundreds injured during clashes that saw the military clear a protest camp where opposition forces staged sit-ins.