US-Egypt ties 'turbulent,' Egyptian FM says

Egypt-US relations remain difficult and "honest" talks are needed to put them back on track, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy warned today, even as the White House blasted a court's mass death sentence.
Speaking on the eve of high-level meetings in Washington, Fahmy admitted ties had gone through "and may still go through turbulent times" since the 2011 revolution and the army's subsequent ouster of democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi last year.
Even as Fahmy addressed the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the White House said it was "deeply troubled" by the court sentencing 683 alleged supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood to death, including its spiritual leader Mohammed Badie.

"Today's verdict, like the one last month, defies even the most basic standards of international justice," the White House said, calling on the court in Minya to reverse its decision.
Fahmy is the highest level Egyptian official to visit Washington since the army overthrew Morsi in July -- a move which has strained ties with the US calling for the military to restore democracy.
He is due to meet tomorrow with both US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, only days after the US administration partially lifted a freeze on some USD 1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Cairo.

The US has agreed to deliver 10 Apache helicopters for counter-terrorism efforts in the unruly Sinai peninsula and some USD 650 million in military aid, but withheld the rest of the aid until democratic progress is made.

Fahmy pledged that "the whole of society is going through a transformation... As we build a modern Egypt."
And he suggested the Minya court ruling could yet be overturned, saying "don't jump to conclusions that the case is determined one way or the other, before it is... Let the legal process follow through."
He also took issue with what he called the "US narrative" since Morsi's ouster saying Egypt was not just engaged in a political crisis, but in "an existential struggle over the identity of Egypt as a people... And the future of Egypt as a nation.