WASHINGTON (AP) — Egyptian military leaders have assured the Obama administration that they are not interested in long-term rule following their toppling of President Mohammed Morsi and have appointed a government of civilian technocrats to temporarily run the country in an apparent bid to forestall potential U.S. sanctions, American officials said Wednesday.The administration would be forced to suspend its $1.5 billion in annual military and economic assistance to Egypt — which is deemed a critical U.S. national security priority — if the ouster is determined to have been a coup d’etat. Under U.S. law, the unconstitutional ouster of a democratically elected government by a country’s armed forces would trigger an aid cutoff. However, such legal determinations can take time and the officials said they believed Egypt’s military was trying to take steps to keep such a finding from being reached.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=87265