(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) Egypt was handed 10 Apache helicopters from the US, official military spokesperson Mohamed Samir confirmed to state media Saturday. The shipment follows an August deal and is part of the US military aid to Egypt.
The announcement was made to put an end to doubts regarding the delayed delivery, as previous reports cited the "deliberate postponement" of the delivery from the American side to put pressure on Egypt.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had told President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to expect the helicopters to arrive in Egypt by November, in a meeting at the presidential palace in Cairo a month earlier.
Military aid to Egypt had been temporarily suspended following tensions due to the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, which was regarded as a military coup, sparking US concerns over democracy in Egypt. However, the Pentagon reversed the decision in April and decided to resume the annual $1.3bn worth of aid.
Following Al-Sisi's inauguration and amid the US-led global war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), US officials agreed that counterterrorism plans should address both military and security solutions as well as developmental solutions at economic and social levels. This included former US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's April phone call to Egyptian Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhy, along with the 2015 spending bill in the US Congress, passed earlier this month following negotiations between Kerry and Al-Sisi.
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