Cairo: US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to arrive in Cairo Sunday for talks, the official Middle East News Agency reported, the first visit by such a senior US official to Egypt since President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi was inaugurated earlier this month.
Kerry, starting a regional tour, will hold in Cairo talks with Al Sissi and newly appointed Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri, according to the agency.
The visit signals rapprochement between Cairo and Washington after months of strains caused by the army’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi.
In Cairo, Kerry is expected to discuss bilateral relations and a Saudi proposal to hold a donor conference to help Egypt overcome its economic crisis.
He will also discuss an Islamist-led insurgency in Iraq, the focus of his regional trip.
In October, Washington withheld part of its annual military aid to Egypt in a sign of displeasure with the overthrow of Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president. The suspension of military hardware to Egypt at the time angered Egyptians, who accused the US of siding with Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Washington has stopped short of labelling Mursi’s toppling a coup, a step that would have prompted a halt to all assistance under the US law.
In April, the US announced the delivery of 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt for use in antiterrorism operations, signalling partial resumption of military aid to its long-time Arab ally.
Egypt has been receiving 1.3 billion dollars in annual military assistance from the US since Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
