R. Stephen Beecroft

Beecroft's nomination came shortly after the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. At the time, U.S. officials had repeatedly criticized the army-backed interim Egyptian government in dealing violently with opponents, especially those associated with the Muslim Brotherhood - banned after the military coup - and for allowing the courts to issue death sentences on hundreds of opponents.[8] It was expected that the Obama administration would nominate Robert Ford, who was a senior U.S. diplomat in the Syrian crisis to the post of ambassador in Cairo, but U.S. officials said that the Egyptian government had indicated that they saw Ford as close to Islamic parties in the Middle East.[9]

In late-April 2014, the United States decided to lift the partial ban imposed on the military aid to Egypt - after the military coup - and the Pentagon delivered ten Apache helicopters to Egypt, and that followed the Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy visit to Washington.[9]

On the same day Beecroft was nominated (May 9, 2014), the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on the United States to support the presidential candidate Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt, the Field Marshal leader of the coup d'état, during the elections and not to criticize him openly, and to postpone any differences with him until after he took office. Barak said in the 2014 speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that "The United States must sometimes waive defending the values of freedom and democracy to protect its interests." He added that he felt happy after the intervention of the army and the arrest of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and setting the ousted President Hosni Mubarak freed from prison.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Beecroft to the post on June 26, 2014.[10]