Kerry pledges support for Egypt in lightning visit

US Secretary of State John Kerry expresses support for Egypt during a brief stop in Cairo.

“The United States understands the importance of Egypt to this region,” Kerry says after meeting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according a transcript from the State Department.

“And we are deeply committed — contrary to some things that occasionally get written or some suggestions that people make — we are deeply committed to the stability of Egypt,” he says.

Egypt is facing a deadly insurgency by Islamic State group militants based in the Sinai Peninsula, which has killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since Morsi’s overthrow.

Kerry says he will return to Egypt to discuss “ways that we can work together in order to deal with Daesh (IS) particularly and to help Egypt in terms of the security concerns that it has today.”

— AFP