McCain: U.S. has lost credibility in Egypt

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday the United States has lost all credibility in Egypt by not withholding aid after last week's deadly clashes.

In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," the senator said that while he initially didn't want to withhold U.S. aid in order to give the Egyptian military government "an opportunity to do the right thing after the coup had taken place," it's clear they haven't changed.

"We have no credibility," he said. "We know that the administration called the Egyptians and said, 'look, if you do a coup, we're going to cut off aid because that's the law.' We have to comply with the law. And ... this administration did not do that after threatening to do so."

"Tourism, economic assistance, business, the [International Monetary Fund] loan. There are many areas where we could exercise influence over the generals, and we're not doing any of it, and we're not sticking with our values," McCain said.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said more than 600 people died when security forces Wednesday razed two protest camps in Cairo and routed demonstrators calling for the reinstatement of Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted July 3.