In her first visit to Cairo since Muslim Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Mursi was declared the winner of Egypt's 16 June presidential election, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced the interesting task of balancing the Americans' close ties with the Egyptian military and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against their commitment to democracy and the Islamist parliament and president this has produced – and on the whole she appears to have come down on the democratic side of the fence. After meeting with Mr Mursi on 14 July. Mrs Clinton underlined that "the US supports the full transition to civilian rule with all that entails. But there is more work ahead. And I think the issues around the parliament, the constitution have to be resolved between and among Egyptians. I will look forward to discussing these issues tomorrow with Field Marshal Tantawi and in working to support the military's return to a purely national security role." And she reiterated the next day after meeting with the head of SCAF that "the US is doing all it can to support the democratically elected government and to help make it a success in delivering results for the people of Egypt." Field Marshal Tantawi's reaction was to fire what looked very much like warning shots across the bows of the Islamists when he said that "the armed forces and the army council respects legislative and executive authorities," but added that "Egypt will never fail. It belongs to all Egyptians and not to a certain group – the armed forces will not allow it. The armed forces will not allow anyone, especially those pushed from outside, to distract it from its role as the protector of Egypt. The army will never commit treason and will continue to perform its duties until Egypt reaches the shores of safety."