Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama has seen the deterioration of U.S. influence in Egypt under the new military-backed regime.

Officials acknowledged that the head of the military coup that ousted President Mohammed Morsi has been resistant to U.S. pleas and even threats to end the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The officials said Defense Minister Abdul Fatah Sisi, who ordered the overthrow of Egypt’s first Islamist president, has told the administration that he would not tolerate U.S. interference in his country.

“There is a complete gap in perception,” an official said. “The administration sees what happened in Egypt as the destruction of a budding democracy, while the [Egyptian] military believes that it saved the country from turning into another Libya or Syria.”

Officials said the U.S. intelligence community and State Department issued what turned out to be a mistaken assessment of Sisi. They said the State Department had reckoned that Sisi, who spent years in U.S. military schools, would be more supportive of cooperation with Washington than his predecessors.

“Sisi has been dismissive of U.S. concerns and his response to us has been much harsher than either Morsi or [his predecessor Hosni]
Mubarak,” a second official said.

“Ironically, Sisi has used his considerable knowledge of and contracts in Washington to resist any U.S. pressure,” the official said. “He knows our vulnerable points.”

In July, Sisi received numerous phone calls from leading U.S. officials,
including President Barack Obama. Most of the phone calls came from Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. ambassador to
Egypt, Anne Patterson, with a peak in communications reported on July 27
when at least 75 people were killed in clashes between Brotherhood
protesters and security forces.

The latest telephone conversation by Hagel and Sisi took place on July
30. Officials said Hagel again urged restraint by Egyptian security
forces in dealing with the Brotherhood.

“Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by phone today with Egyptian
Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Fatah El Sissi to discuss the security situation
in Egypt and to urge restraint by Egyptian security forces in dealing with
ongoing protests,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Officials said Sisi has also not been swayed by threats by Congress to
suspend annual U.S. aid of $1.5 billion to Egypt. They said the defense
minister demonstrated his clout when he won pledges of $12 billion from such
Gulf Cooperation Council allies as Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab
Emirates.

“The truth is we don’t have a lever over him,” the official said.
“He has the lever over us.”

On July 30, Obama asked two leading Republican senators to visit Egypt
and meet Sisi. Sen. Lindsey Graham said he and Sen. John McCain, both deemed
supporters of Egypt’s military, would relay a message to Sisi to
arrange for new elections after the ouster of Morsi.

“We want to deliver a unified message that killing the opposition is
becoming more and more like a coup,” Graham said. “…I’d like to go over
there and talk to the military and to any members of the government and
Brotherhood factions to find out what is going on the ground, and send a
clear message to the people in charge of Egypt that there are certain
expectations here in America that are bipartisan in nature.”

Officials said the administration and the congressional leadership have
agreed that Egypt’s lever over Washington was U.S. military access to the
Suez Canal. They said any Egyptian halt or even reduction to the canal would
threaten the war in Afghanistan as well as plans by Obama for a withdrawal
in 2014. On July 30, an explosion was reported near the Suez Canal.

  Abdul Fatah Sisi, Anne Patterson, Chuck Hagel, John Kerry, Mohammed Morsi, Obama administration losing credibility in Cairo