Secretary of State John Kerry had a "very serious and very constructive" discussion with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry during his visit yesterday, he told reporters, AP reports. "I will come back [to Cairo] with additional thoughts about ways in which we can work together to invigorate the economy, to attract investment, to create jobs, and also ways that we can work together in order to deal with Daesh particularly and to help Egypt in terms of the security concerns that it has today," Kerry stated. Washington sees Egypt as "critical" to regional peace and security, to which President Abdel Fattah El Sisi delivered a stern warning: "You have no idea what will happen to the region and to Europe if this nation collapses. We do not ignore human rights, but you must know that there are evil powers that work toward giving a negative impression about what is going on in Egypt."

Kerry, CNN notes, “showed strong support for the government of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo Wednesday, in an apparent effort to repair a public rift over human rights.”

The two sides downplayed human rights issues in their respective communiqués, but the U.S. media thrust the issue into the spotlight at State Department spokesman John Kirby’s briefing yesterday. The full readout on the presser is here, for those so inclined.