McCain Urges US To End Military Aid To Egypt As 30 Die In Clashes

The United States should stop sending military aid to Egypt following the overthrow of its democratically elected president by the military, Senator John McCain said, as overnight street battles left at least 30 dead across the divided country.

Egypt’s military insists that ousting Islamist Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday was the will of the people as expressed by mass demonstrations calling for him to go.

Secretary of State John Kerry approved $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt – the second largest recipient of such help after Israel – only two months ago.

However, U.S. law prohibits financial assistance to any country whose elected head of state is deposed in a military coup.

Cairo’s emblematic Tahrir Square and nearby approaches to the River Nile – which were the focus of anti-Morsi demonstrations — were largely empty early Saturday but left strewn with debris.

Thousands of Morsi’s Islamist supporters marched to the area Friday demanding his reinstatement but ended up fleeing under a hail of stones, fireworks and sometimes gunfire.

Heath Ministry official Khaled el-Khatib told The Associated Press that 30 people were killed and some 210 wounded in violence across the country.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement said the country had returned to the days of military rule under former President Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood was a banned organization for much of his rule.

“It’s the old police state of Mubarak with every ingredient and nightmare that it had before the January 25 revolution. It’s as if we hit the reset button,” Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad told Reuters.

The Brotherhood’s website said some 3 million people had taken part in pro-Morsi demonstrations.

It issued four demands late Friday: Morsi’s return to office;  the cancellation of all “unconstitutional coup-related decisions, decrees and actions announced by the military council with which it usurped power;” the reinstatement of the constitution; and for officials to be held accountable for the killing of protesters and other “oppressive tactics.”

The U.S. has avoided calling Morsi’s ouster a coup, which would mean aid would have to be suspended.

But, speaking in Prescott, Arizona, McCain said, “I say that with great reluctance, but the United States of America I think must learn the lessons of history and that is: We cannot stand by without acting in cases where freely elected governments are unseated by the military arm of those nations.”

He said he believed U.S. aid had to be suspended, and called on the Egyptian military to set a timetable for elections and a new constitution.

“Then we should evaluate whether to continue the aid or not,” he said. “I am aware that by suspending aid to the Egyptian military, which is the only stable institution in Egypt, we are risking further problems in the Sinai, and in other areas of cooperation with the Egyptian military.”

The U.S. State Department condemned the violence Friday.

“We call on all Egyptian leaders to condemn the use of force and to prevent further violence among their supporters,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.

“The voices of all who are protesting peacefully must be heard – including those who welcomed the events of earlier this week and those who supported President Morsy,” she added. “The Egyptian people must come together to resolve their differences peacefully, without recourse to violence or the use of force.”

The chaotic scenes that played out in the capital, mostly on a bridge leading to Tahrir, ended only after the army rushed in with armored vehicles to separate the warring groups. Some of Morsi’s opponents jumped on at least one vehicle to try to show that the military was on their side.

Across the country, clashes erupted as Morsi supporters tried to storm local government buildings or military facilities, battling police or Morsi opponents.

Islamists descended on anti-Morsi rally, opening fire with guns in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria, where at least 12 people were killed, mostly Morsi opponents, emergency services official Amr Salama said.

One man was stabbed and thrown from the roof of a building by Morsi supporters after he raised an Egyptian flag and shouted insults against the ousted president, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Friday’s turmoil began in the afternoon when army troops opened fire as hundreds of his supporters marched on the Republican Guard building in Cairo. That site is where Morsi was staying when he was toppled before being taken into military custody at an undisclosed location.

The crowd approached a barbed wire barrier where troops were standing guard. When one person hung a sign of Morsi on the barrier, soldiers tore it down and told the crowd to stay back. A protester put up a second sign, and the soldiers opened fire, according to an AP photographer.

The Health Ministry said a total of four were killed at the site, though it was not known how all died.