Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7 /. Trend R.Hafizoglu /
The U.S. is committed to seeing Egypt succeed politically and economically, the U.S. Department of State regional spokesperson Joshua Baker told Trend.
"We are committed to Egypt's transition and to seeing the country succeed politically and economically. We support the Egyptian people who fought a revolution to change the country for the better. To begin building a democracy, to exercise their universal rights and have a say in how they are governed. We support all those who seek to make these aspirations real for the people," Baker said.
According to him, the U.S. is clearly concerned by the on-going lack of consensus in Egyptian politics and by the violence that has taken lives.
There are deep seated grievances and concerns and the U.S. defends the right of Egyptians to voice them, the representative said.
According to him, the Egyptian government also has a responsibility to ensure that a safe and secure environment exists for protesters.
"We call on the Egyptian government to respect the universal right to freedom of association, assembly and expression," Baker said.
He said reaching an agreement with the IMF is critical to Egypt's economic health.
The U.S. continues to urge the Egyptian government to implement the necessary economic reforms that will make this possible.
"We support cooperation in the area of peaceful use of nuclear energy for countries that comply with their international obligations under the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and we encourage all countries to adopt the highest standards of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation," Baker said.
According to him, while nuclear energy can play a role as part of a long term comprehensive energy strategy in Egypt, the U.S. recognises it also faces acute short term energy shortages and urgently needs power generation capacity now from other sources as well.
"We regret the Egyptian decision to leave the NPT Preparatory Committee meeting. We remain committed to convening a conference on a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction and will continue to seek practical means to bring the parties together," Baker said.
Egypt refused to participate in negotiations on the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Geneva on Monday, March 29, in protest against the failure of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East designed to free the region from nuclear weapons. According to Reuters, Cairo implicitly criticised Israel, which is considered to be the only nuclear power in the region.