President Obama said in a televised interview on Wednesday that the US does not consider Egypt’s Islamist-led government an ally or an enemy, even as Washington continues to flood the post-revolution country with billions in military and financial aid.

 

“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said following masses of protesters who stormed the US Embassy in Cairo and tore up the American flag, sparked by offense over an anti-Muslim film made in the US.

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi was slow to react to the issue of angry mobs outside the US Embassy, and administration officials were apparently waiting for him to condemn the protests and reaffirm his support for America and the defense of its Embassy.

Obama said the newly formed, democratically elected Egyptian government is trying “to find its way.” In other words, they haven’t yet been strong enough in their subservience to Washington, who propped up the former dictator Hosni Mubarak for decades.

If Egyptian officials show “they’re not taking responsibility,” Obama warned, then it would “be a real big problem.”