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Lobbying 2016: US grudgingly accepts new normal with Egypt

US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry (L) at the State Department in Washington, DC, July 21, 2016. / AFP / SAUL LOEB        (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Washington would like to formally register its disapproval of Cairo’s authoritarian backsliding, and now can we please get back to business as usual.

Despite a chorus of criticism from human rights groups, the Obama administration is showing no interest in paring back a $1.3 billion-a-year military aid package that forms the crux of the bilateral relationship. The State Department’s request for fiscal year 2017 seeks the full amount, and the two countries late last year resumed joint production of M1A1 main battle tanks following the program’s suspension after the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

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