The US has announced that it is canceling $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, with the move coming just days after the Biden administration approved a $2.5 billion arms sale to the North African country.
Cairo has failed to meet all the human rights conditions set out by Washington to be eligible for the paycheck, the US State Department announced on Friday.
“After January 30, the secretary intends to reprogram the $130 million to other national security priorities,” it pointed out, without elaborating on what those priorities might be.
In September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken greenlighted $300 million in foreign military aid to Egypt, but withheld another $130 million on condition that the country fulfilled “specific human-rights related conditions” by the end of January.
The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is accused of having enacted a large-scale crackdown in recent years on Islamist and secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.