Coup d’etat or liberation? US-Egypt relations after the fall of Mohamed Morsi

In response to the political convulsions in Egypt, Barack Obama stated from Dar el Salaam that the United States is committed to the democratic process in that country and urged the Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, to work towards the building of consensus. Following Morsi’s overthrow by the army on 3 July, the United States urged a speedy return to civilian rule. Obama’s reaction to the crisis is typical of the cautiousness and realism that has characterised his policy towards the Middle East over the past few years. Western critics of the US president castigate this as ‘lack of strategy’; his supporters, pointing to the disasters spelt by imperialist over-extension under the Bush administration, applaud it for keeping a balance between foreign policy ends and means.