According to a report titled “Sisi to Pentagon: We will not turn back, sovereignty is a red line,” published in Watan newspaper (Saturday, August 17 edition), Egyptian Maj. Gen. Muhammad al-’Assar has just issued a strongly worded letter to the Pentagon, on behalf of the Egyptian military council, saying, among other things, “We will not retreat from fighting terrorism; the military does not run, for the [Egyptian] republic has leadership, and our message is clear: we will not allow red lines to be crossed.”

Regarding U.S. president Barrack Obama’s cancelation of joint military exercises with Egypt, criticism of the military’s crackdown on the Brotherhood, and threats of cutting U.S. aid to Egypt, Watan reported military sources as saying, “The American decision will not influence the course drawn by popular will” — a reference to the fact that the overwhelming majority of Egyptians reject Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood — and that “the military does not accept any external dictates and will not permit any nation to support terrorism in Egypt,” a reference to the fact that U.S. support for the Brotherhood is support for terrorism.
Military sources reportedly also told Watan news that contact with the American administration has completely ceased, though it remains open with the Pentagon, “which informed the Egyptian side of its fears concerning [Egypt's] closeness to Russia.




Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, World Almanac of Islamism, and Chronicle of Higher Education; he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Blaze TV, and CBN. Ibrahim regularly speaks publicly, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress. He is a Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; a CBN News contributor; a Media Fellow, Hoover Institution (2013); and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum . Ibrahim’s dual-background -- born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East -- has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former.