US Mideast envoy heads to Cairo to help resolve crisis

US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is on his second Cairo visit Cairo – Akram Ali US Middle East envoy William Burns will arrive in Cairo on Friday night, a senior Egyptian official said, as international efforts to resolve Egypt's political crisis ramp up .
According to a statement from the US State Department, Burns will meet with the Egyptian leadership to discuss ways to end the recent violence.
"The United States looks forward to seeing a peaceful transition to a democratically elected civilian government that protects the rights of all Egyptians," the statement said.
Burns, the undersecretary of state for the Middle East, has already visited Egypt once since the July 3 ouster of president Mohammed Morsi.
His latest trip comes after EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visited in a bid to mediate a peaceful solution to the stand-off between Morsi supporters and the army-installed interim government.
EU Middle East envoy Bernardino Leon and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle have also held talks in Cairo this week to urge both sides to reach a compromise.
US Secretary of State John Kerry sparked an uproar among Morsi supporters on Thursday after saying the military was "restoring democracy" when it deposed the Islamist president.
Several political analysts considered Kerri’s remarks shift in the US administration’s position towards the recent events in Egypt.
Mohammed Abdellatif, a member of the National Salvation Front, an alliance of political parties, formed to defeat Morsi, told Arab Today that Burn’s visit following Kerry’s remarks showed a shift in US policy, particularly after the recent visit by Ashton.
According to Abdellatif, Washington is trying to restore its position in Egypt after losing its ally, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Meanwhile, Nabil al-Orabi a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, noted that Burns' visit comes just hours after Kerri’s statement, and a day after the US Congress rejected to suspend military aid to Egypt.
Orabi told Arab Today that Congress had forced the US administration to change its position, prompting Kerry to ask Burns to help in ending the crisis in Egypt.
Additional source: AFP