[DenverBrit]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

So Obama now admits that we have lost Egypt as an ally. He admits on Telemundo interview that we can no longer consider Egypt a friend.

At this rate, we will have no allies left in the world when Obama leaves office. This guy is great at foreign policy.

Why do you find it necessary to lie when quoting others?? Weren't you one who complained about putting the Muslim Brotherhood in office??

"I don't think we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy. They are a new government that is trying to find its way," Mr Obama said in a television interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo.

Jonathan Marcus BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

President Obama's comments serve political purposes at home and abroad. A distancing of Washington from the new order in Egypt will not upset the country's new president whose own political background is in the Muslim Brotherhood camp - highly sceptical of US goals in the region.

Amidst riots outside the US embassy in Cairo, Mr Obama is also signalling, as Emile Hokayem, Senior Fellow for Regional Security at the IISS puts it, that "the US cannot be taken for granted. He is looking for leverage over Egypt, putting the responsibility for moving Egypt forward, firmly on Egypt's own shoulders".

At home, amidst the strident debate of the US presidential election campaign, Mr Obama loses no friends by distancing himself from the Egyptian authorities. There is a pervading sense of fatigue in the US with the Middle East and a growing public feeling that "the Arab world" is somehow ungrateful for US support during the upheavals of the Arab Spring.