U.S. blocks funds the Egyptian military

The U.S. funding for the Egyptian army would be blocked since last July. The measure aims to put pressure on the armed forces of Egypt, as real holders of power, that the difficult situation you can find an outlet peaceful. It is a real sanction for an armed force that relies almost exclusively on U.S. arms and military training. The definition of coup d'etat, that Obama has given to the seizure of power by the army has so far been interpreted as a statement almost obligatory, in addition to which the United States did not seem to go further. But one implication of this definition is precisely the suspension of funding, as required by law on aid to foreign countries. The appropriation of Congress for military supplies to Egypt was, for 2013, of 1,300 million dollars, of which 585 million have not yet been disbursed. The amount that Washington has poured in Cairo since 1998 is around 20 billion dollars that have been spent mainly to buy U.S. weapons, which now cover eighty percent of new purchases Egyptian arsenal. The block then puts funding in crisis throughout the war machine of Egypt, from the moment that the measure also includes the suspension of the opportunity to purchase not only new weapons manufactured in the U.S., but also spare parts. For an armed force has almost entirely of products from one country it is a prospect which, especially in the long term, is likely to paralyze the entire apparatus. If, from the financial point of view Saudi Arabia, which fears the spread of the contagion of the Muslim Brotherhood also within its territories, said she was willing to replace the failed American financing, the objective impossibility to perform maintenance on armaments is a danger too big for the main force, now the country's politics. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will continue on this road at all costs: the importance of Egypt and the role of its armed forces in the Middle East chessboard is also crucial for the protection of Israel, always the center of U.S. concerns, the which does not like the measure taken against the Egyptian army by the Obama administration. In fact it does not seem real that Washington without an ally of this caliber, because this could be an epilogue of the story, but points, more than anything else, to acts by the military led by General al-Sisi, demonstrating the good will to direct the country towards a democratic government of Western footprint and that averts the presence of the religious parties. In this perspective, the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, who have lost all their leaders, imprisoned by the military, may favor the victory, when new elections will be possible, of secular formations. The problem remains, however, reduce the protests that cause the violence of the armed forces, the attitude of the formations of religious inspiration is totally closed to any proposal coming from the military. It becomes apparent that the Egyptian government, who began work in place of the elected, must give proof of diplomatic skill on their home front to prevent U.S. aid should be definitively blocked. By the military expects a different approach to resolving the crisis, which would not pose a challenge to the United States in front of his public and to the world, to be perceived as colluding with an armed force and violent coup. This is the real purpose of the interruption of military aid to the Egyptian Army.