Egypt: 'Traditional cooperation' between U.S. and Egypt based on geopolitics and money - by Tom Curry

President Barack Obama may not have directly threatened to cut aid to Egypt on Thursday, but he made clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable. “While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” he said following days of violent clashes.

But what has that “traditional cooperation” been?

Although some U.S. foreign aid has been sent to Egypt since 1946, the current dimensions of the U.S. relationship with Egypt were set by the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, which President Jimmy Carter helped negotiate. As Obama and other presidents have said, the continuation of the Egypt-Israel peace accord is an anchor of stability in that volatile region.

Another dimension of the U.S.-Egypt relationship is geopolitical and based on access to the Suez Canal. The Egyptian government allows the U.S. Navy to use the canal on an expedited basis. According to the Congressional Research Service, this access allows the Navy to “deploy carrier groups swiftly to the Persian Gulf region. Without passage through the Canal, the Navy would have to deploy ships around the Cape of Good Hope — adding significant time to deployment from Norfolk, Va., to the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean.

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