Mr. Kerry’s Egypt stopover comes as relations between the once-close allies have grown increasingly strained, and at a particularly tense moment in Egypt: He is scheduled to arrive the day before Mr. Morsi, detained incommunicado since his July 3 ouster, is to make his first court appearance on murder charges.
The website of Al Ahram, the flagship state newspaper, said Mr. Kerry would meet with the interim president and foreign minister to discuss aid and bilateral relations.
Since the military takeover, Egypt’s generals and their backers have lashed out at the United States, accusing it of showing favoritism toward Mr. Morsi and his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood by, among other things, criticizing the military government’s withering crackdown on Islamists. Saudi Arabia, which strongly backs Egypt’s generals, has also rebuked the United States over its Egypt policy.
Last month, adding further stress to the Egypt relationship, the Obama administration announced a temporary freeze on some military assistance in what it said was a response to the government’s repression. At the same time, American officials have seemed anxious not to rupture ties, emphasizing, for instance, that the freeze was reversible and would not restrict aid for counterterrorism operations.
Egypt’s military-backed government, which has secured billions of dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia and other affluent Persian Gulf nations, has seemed impervious to pressure to moderate its crackdown. In August, two weeks after Mr. Kerry said that Egypt’s generals had been “restoring democracy” by removing Mr. Morsi, the army and the police stormed two Islamist sit-ins, killing hundreds of people. Thousands of Islamists have been detained since, including most of the senior leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The news of Mr. Kerry’s visit added a layer of tension in Egypt as the country braced for the trial of Mr. Morsi, which many feared could lead to further unrest. The former president, who has been held in military custody, is charged with inciting the killing of protesters outside his palace last year, among other crimes. For weeks during his detention, American and other foreign diplomats have called for his release.
Thousands of Mr. Morsi’s supporters marched in cities across Egypt on Friday, in what they said was the start of four days of demonstrations to protest his prosecution.
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The New York Times