Egypt: US reiterates support for transitional roadmap

CAIRO — U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has reiterated his government's support for Egypt's transitional roadmap, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi held talks with Hagel in Washington on Wednesday, but the two officials refrained from holding a press conference afterward.

"During the meeting, Hagel stressed U.S. support for the democratic transition process and the transitional roadmap in Egypt," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, the two men underlined the importance of maintaining "strategic" cooperation between Egypt and the U.S. in the military and security fields, including counterterrorism.

The Egyptian army imposed a transitional roadmap following the July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi on the back of massive protests against his one-year rule.

Egypt is scheduled to hold presidential election on May 26-27, the second step in the roadmap after a constitutional referendum held in mid-January. The map also calls for fresh parliamentary polls later this year. Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, the former army general who played a key role in Morsi's ouster, and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi will be the only contenders for the presidency.

Fahmi also met Robert Menendez, head of the U.S. Congress' foreign relations committee, who announced his "full support" for Egypt's transitional roadmap and welcomed upcoming presidential polls, according to a separate Foreign Ministry statement.

Fahmi's visit, which wrapped up on Wednesday, was his first to the U.S. since the army removed democratically-elected Morsi - a leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group - last summer.