The Middle East News Agency reported Tuesday that several American Air Force planes landed at an Egyptian Airbase to participate in joint drills with the Egyptian Air Force. The drills will start in the coming few days and will last for 10 days. The Agency said that the drills aim at training the fighters on conducting joint defense and offense operations, and also aim at strengthening the administrative and technical cooperation between the Egyptian and the American armed forces.
Israeli daily, Maariv, reported that announcing the drills comes less than a week after the United States said it will be reducing the number of troops and equipment that will be used in joint drills with the Israeli army.
This will be the first time such drills take place since the Egyptians removed president, Hosni Mubarak, and elected the new Islamist President, Mohammad Morsi.
Maariv said that the joint training between the U.S. Army and the Egyptian Armed Forces is an indication to the strong relations between Washington and Cairo, especially since officials feared that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Cairo will impact these relations.
The United States recently started talking about voiding $1 Billion of Egyptian debt as a sign of good will to the newly elected leadership in Egypt.
It is worth mentioning that Egypt started removing its tanks from the Sinai Peninsula after battling extremist armed groups, and replaced those tanks with fast and advanced armored vehicles.
