President Obama: Egypt not an enemy of US, but not an ally
Source: NBC
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that while he does not believe Egypt is an ally of the United States, nor does he consider the country an enemy.
I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident, Obama said in an interview with Telemundo anchor José Diaz-Balart, host of Noticiero Telemundo. He was referring to Tuesdays protests in Egypt, during which demonstrators, angered by a movie trailer parodying Prophet Muhammad, breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
The president continued: "Certainly in this situation, what we're going to expect is that (the Egyptian government is) responsive to our insistence that our embassy is protected, our personnel is protected, and if they take actions that theyre not taking those responsibilities, as all countries do where we have embassies, I think thats going to be a real big problem.
(snip)
Responding to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romneys statements that Obamas initial response was disgraceful, Obama said: As president, my obligation is to focus on security for our people, making sure that we gather all the facts, making sure that we're advancing American interests. And not having ideological arguments on a day when we are mourning the loss of outstanding folks who have served our country very well.
Read more: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/12/13836414-obama-egypt-not-an-enemy-of-us-but-not-an-ally?lite
video at link
The Rachel Maddow Show includes segments of an interview with President Barack Obama with Telemundo anchor José Díaz-Balart about the U.S. response to the attacks on American missions in Egypt and Libya Tuesday.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)It's nice to see some nuance in diplomacy again.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)they were never our allies or outright enemies.
They listened to us because we bribed them . . . er gave them monetary assistance.
But that's about it. If you have to pay your friends to occasionally hang out with you then they aren't really your friends.