Hillary meets military leaders in Egypt

DHAKA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has held talks with Egypt’s top military leaders in Cairo, after calling for them to help smooth the country’s full transition to democracy.

The top US diplomat met Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), on Sunday, a day after arriving in Egypt amid a complex power struggle being played out between the army and newly-elected president, Mohamed Mursi.

‘They discussed the political transition and the SCAF’s ongoing dialogue with President Mursi,’ a state department official told reporters after the talks that lasted just over an hour.

The two also discussed an economic package proposed by Hillary and ‘Tantawi stressed that this is what Egyptians need most now, help getting the economy back on track,’ the official said, reports Al Jazeera.

Hillary has repeatedly called on the military to respect the outcome of the elections and told a news conference her talks with Tantawi would focus on ‘working to support the military’s return to a purely national security role’.

Tantawi was the country’s interim military ruler after president Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year ending three decades in power.

The SCAF ran Egypt’s affairs after Mubarak’s ouster and is in a political struggle with Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood over how to direct the transition.

Hillary said her country’s ‘shared strategic interests far outnumber our differences’ with Egypt.

BDST: 1928 HRS, JUL 15, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor