US decides to release suspended military aid to Egypt

The State Department says the United States has decided to release $195 million in military aid to Egypt after withholding the assistance last year over human rights concerns.

The department says Egypt has taken steps in response to specific U.S. concerns, although there are still areas of concern on human rights and governance.

The U.S. suspended the aid in August 2017. The secretary of state at that time, Rex Tillerson, said he wasn't able to certify that Egypt had met the human rights criteria set by Congress in order to receive the American assistance.

Egypt responded angrily and called that decision a "misjudgment of the nature of the strategic relations that have bound the two countries for decades."