Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — The United States plans to resume major combat exercises with Egypt.

Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama was discussing the resumption of combat exercises with Egypt.

The officials said the administration planned to renew the Bright Star multinational exercise, canceled in September 2013.

“The United States has been discussing holding Bright Star later this year,” an official said. “We are looking at possible dates and locations that could be secured from terrorist attack.”

The staging of the biannual Bright Star would represent the restoration of U.S. military cooperation with Egypt. Over the last eight months, the administration suspended major combat weapons deliveries, including the F-16 multi-role fighter, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and M1A1 main battle tank.

Officials said the cancellation of Bright Star was decided by Egypt amid the military coup against President Mohammed Morsi. They said the cancellation was based on the military’s crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Over the last two months, the U.S. military sent a series of high-level
delegations to Cairo to discuss the restoration of cooperation. Officials
said the delegations, several of them sent by U.S. Central Command, reviewed
defense projects, military exercises and training as well as U.S. Navy
rights to Egypt’s Suez Canal.

“There is a consensus in Washington that the United States, regardless
of its opposition to the post-Brotherhood regime, cannot lose Egypt,” the
official said.

  AH-64 Apache, Bright Star exercise, F-16 multi-role fighters, M1A1 main battle tank, Mohammed Morsi, U.S. resumes Egypt exercises despite ouster of Brotherhood regime