--- title: U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt description: But the White House announcement wasn't only about weapons. canonical: https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-31T22:48:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:46.274Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt og:description: But the White House announcement wasn't only about weapons. og:url: https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf3c0afe11e50fa/6987861ce20a8764f4a85db4/rtxxah3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2200 og:image:height: 1238 og:image:alt: An Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighter jet flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters gathered at Tahrir square in Cairo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt twitter:description: But the White House announcement wasn't only about weapons. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf3c0afe11e50fa/6987861ce20a8764f4a85db4/rtxxah3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Mar 31, 2015 10:48 PM UTC  A U.S.-built Egyptian F-16 flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters in Tahrir square in Cairo in January 2011. A U.S.-built Egyptian F-16 flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters in Tahrir square in Cairo in January 2011. Yannis Behrakis / Reuters by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Mar 31, 2015 10:48 PM UTC President Obama on Tuesday [lifted](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/31/readout-president-s-call-president-al-sisi-egypt) his nearly two-year ban on shipping American weapons to Egypt, a restriction imposed after its military kicked out its elected government in 2013. Obama relayed news of the move in a telephone call to Egyptian President (and former Army general) Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. It will allow for the shipment of 12 F-16 aircraft, 20 Harpoon missiles and up to 125 M-1 Abrams tank upgrades. The White House added that the Administration will continue to ask Congress to approve $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt.  U.S. aid to Egypt is overwhelmingly for new weapons, designated "FMF" ("Foreign Military Financing"). CRS The resumption of arms shipments to Egypt is in keeping with the growth of U.S. arms sales abroad. Major American weapons exports grew by 23% between 2005-2009 and 2010-2014, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) [said](http://www.sipri.org/media/pressreleases/2015/at-march-2015) on March 16\. “The USA has long seen arms exports as a major foreign policy and security tool,” Aude Fleurant, of SIPRI, said when the group released its annual arms-sales accounting. “But in recent years exports are increasingly needed to help the U.S. arms industry maintain production levels at a time of decreasing U.S. military expenditure.” The White House announcement wasn’t only about weapons. “President Obama also reiterated U.S. concerns about Egypt’s continued imprisonment of non-violent activists and mass trials,” it said in a statement. And, as the Administration drafts proposed legislation to resume military aid to Egypt, it “will not make the so-called ‘democracy certification’ in that legislation,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said. In other words, Egypt remains little more than a military junta now wearing civilian clothes, and the White House won’t pretend otherwise. All this is what diplomats call a return to the _status quo ante_—the way things were before. Obama is eager to defeat the militants of Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, defeat Islamic fundamentalist uprisings in Libya and Yemen and tamp down Iran’s ambitions—nuclear and otherwise. If he, and the U.S. government, have to cozy up to coup-plotters to achieve that goal, that’s [_realpolitik_](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/realpolitik). Cairo has recently suggested it may send ground troops into Yemen to bolster air strikes being carried out there by Saudi Arabia against the Iranian-backed Houthis rebels. Obama is now willing to resume the arms flow to Egypt in hopes of improving relations between the two nations as they join with other countries in a bid to restore stability to the war-racked region. After nearly 40 years of such aid, the record is not reassuring. “Since the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty, the United States has provided Egypt with large amounts of military assistance,” the Congressional Research Service [reported](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/rl33003.pdf) earlier this month. “U.S. policy makers have routinely justified aid to Egypt as an investment in regional stability, built primarily on long-running military cooperation and on sustaining the treaty—principles that are supposed to be mutually reinforcing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/"},"headline":"U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt","datePublished":"2015-03-31T22:48:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:46.274Z","description":"But the White House announcement wasn't only about weapons","url":"https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/","keywords":["Military","Obama","Saudi Arabia","Egypt","National Security","Yemen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf3c0afe11e50fa/6987861ce20a8764f4a85db4/rtxxah3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbf3c0afe11e50fa/6987861ce20a8764f4a85db4/rtxxah3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighter jet flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters gathered at Tahrir square in Cairo","caption":"An Egyptian Air Force F-16 fighter jet flies low over thousands of anti-government protesters gathered at Tahrir square in Cairo","creditText":"Yannis Behrakis / Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3766224/united-states-weapons-ban-lifted-egypt/","name":"U.S. Resumes Weapons Flow to Egypt"}}]}] ```