[JURIST] The US Secretary of State [official website] announced Saturday that the decision on restoration of military aid to Egypt will come soon. Secretary John Kerry made the announcement [NYT report] during the government-sponsored economic development conference at the Red Sea City Resort. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi recently laid out a plan for economic liberalization and Secretary Kerry publicized [transcript] American support for the president’s new policies. American military support was withdrawn after the military takeover in 2013 [NYT report]. The Obama Administration [official website] has since suspended $700 million of the 1.3 billion dollars of annual military aid. The failure to give the rest of the aid has caused President Sisi problems in combating Islamic militant attacks, and the president has stressed the need for heavy weaponry and other aid to fight the militants. Congress has required the Obama Administration to either certify that Egypt is taking steps towards becoming a democratic state or to issue a national security waiver before restoring aid to Egypt. Secretary Kerry ended his address with promising a decision soon.

Egypt has been in constant political unrest since the Egyptian Revolution [JURIST backgrounder] occurred in 2011. In early April 2014 Human Rights Watch urged [JURIST report] the US not to resume military aid until the country begins to make progress on developing basic freedoms or on its democratic transition. Since then Egypt has been working on its democratic transition. In March 2015, Egypt’s cabinet and the Ministry of Investment approved [JURIST report] an investment law aimed at protecting business deals from legal disputes or political changes and addressing investor complaints about bureaucracy. Also in March 2015 an Egyptian court upheld [JURIST report] a 10-year prison sentence for two police officers who were convicted for torturing activist Khaled Said to death in 2010.