Obama asks Graham, McCain to travel to Egypt

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. senators said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked them to travel to Egypt next week to urge the military to move ahead on new elections.

Egypt has seen deadly protests since President Mohammed Morsi was toppled in a military coup on July 3. It has threatened the $1.5 billion in annual U.S. military and economic aid to the Arab world's most populous country.

"The president asked Sen. (John) McCain and myself to go to Egypt next week, so we're trying to find a way to get there," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said. "So we can go over and reinforce in a bipartisan fashion the message that we have to move to civilian control, that the military is going to have to, you know, allow the country to have new elections and move toward an inclusive, democratic approach."

McCain provided few details on the trip, but he said he and Graham would try to assist in the reconciliation process in Egypt.

"The place is in turmoil, obviously," said McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 election. "We have credibility with everybody there, all the different factions there."

The White House declined to comment about a possible trip.

Graham said the stakes were high. "If Egypt goes and Israel is surrounded by more and more radical regimes ... we'll regret not doing everything possible to keep Egypt on track as a stable society," he told reporters.

Graham said the idea of "maybe us going if things deteriorate" in Egypt was first discussed at a July 17 meeting at the White House. McCain and Graham sat down for nearly two hours for a wide ranging national security discussion with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Graham said the goal was to deliver a unified message that "jailing the opposition is more and more like a coup."

Last week, the Obama administration told lawmakers that it won't declare Egypt's government overthrow a coup, which would prompt the automatic suspension of assistance programs under U.S. law. The administration fears that stopping such funding could hurt programs that help to secure Israel's border and fight weapons smuggling into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.