The Biden administration has decided to release $320m in military aid to Egypt - a package previously contingent on improving human rights issues in the country.

Unless Congress steps in, this brings the total amount from Washington to Cairo this year to $1.3bn. Egypt has long been the second-highest recipient of US military aid after Israel.

In a statement, the Middle East Democracy Center, a Washington-based advocacy group, called the decision a “betrayal” by an administration that pledged to make human rights central to the US-Egypt bilateral relationship.

“The illusion that the United States can use its military aid to these regimes as leverage for the dictatorships and the abusive regimes to improve themselves is a joke,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) told MEE. “There is no way for el-Sisi to reform el-Sisi. There is no way for Netanyahu to reform Netanyahu. These things are not going to happen."