US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Egypt’s military was “restoring democracy” when they deposed the country’s first freely elected president. In an television interview in Pakistan, Mr Kerry said: “The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance into chaos, into violence. And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgement – so far. To run the country, there’s a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy.”
Washington has refused to describe Mr Morsi’s removal as a “coup”. Doing so would require the US government to cut off its estimated $1.5bn (£1bn) in annual aid to Egypt.
