US to ‘maintain’ military ties with Egypt

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the US will “maintain a military relationship with Egypt” while the recent fatal crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi left over 500 people dead.

“The Department of Defense will continue to maintain a military relationship with Egypt, but I made it clear that the violence and inadequate steps towards reconciliation are putting important elements of our long-standing defense cooperation at risk,” said Hagel in a statement on Thursday, recounting his phone conversation with Egypt’s military chief, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

The US assurance of maintaining a relationship to the Egyptian military comes as more than 500 people were killed in Wednesday’s clashes between Egypt’s security forces and Morsi’s supporters.

On Thursday, Egypt’s Health Ministry raised the death toll from the previous day’s clashes between security forces and Morsi’s supporters to 525, putting the number of those injured on Wednesday at 3,717.

The US provides the Egyptian military with $1.3 billion in annual aid and Washington has shown no sign that it would stop its annual aid to the Egyptian military in response to the July 3 military-led coup and the violence that followed the coup.

In a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday, Eric Walberg, author of Postmodern Imperialism, said the US “has built up” the Egyptian military because Washington needs Egypt in order to maintain “its empire.”

“[The US] has built up the [Egyptian] military since the 70s and all of these people performing the coup are working with their US counterparts on a very intimate level. They are in contact every day,” said Walberg.