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Washington (CNN) - The United States should stay out of Egypt.
That seemed to be the sentiment from Americans regarding the upheaval in the Middle East nation after Egypt's military deposed President Mohamed Morsy, according to polling conducted last month, prior to the outburst of violence this week.
The surveys also indicated that a majority said U.S. aid to Egypt should be reduced or eliminated, that interest in what's happening in Egypt has diminished, and that only a small minority think that Washington has much influence on what's happening in Cairo.
More than three-quarters of those questioned in a United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll from mid-July said that the U.S. should "mostly stay out of events in Egypt and allow people there to resolve their own differences." Only 16% said Washington should "do more to try to shape the government in Egypt and promote an end to violence." According to the survey, there was virtually no partisan, ideological or demographic divide on this question.
Two-thirds of the public says the new government installed by the Egyptian military is something in between a friend and an enemy to the U.S. Only one in five said Washington should continue the same level of aid to Cairo, with six in ten saying the aid should be reduced or eliminated.
Egypt gets more than $1 billion each year of U.S. taxpayer money for military and civilian programs. In a statement Thursday, President Barack Obama refrained from calling Morsy's overthrow a coup, which would have implications the aid Cairo receives.
American sentiment on the upheaval in Egypt is in line with the public's current views on the deadly on-going civil war in Syria. Polls conducted in May and June of this year indicated that a majority opposed direct U.S. involvement in the fighting between the Syrian government and rebels.
The National Journal poll was conducted July 11-14. A Pew Research Center survey conducted on the same days indicated that interest about events in Egypt has diminished. Thirty-six percent said what was happening in Egypt is very important to American interests, down from 46% in February of 2011, during the early weeks of the Arab Spring.
Less than a quarter of the public said the U.S has a lot of influence on the situation in Egypt, with 48% saying Washington has some influence and a quarter saying the U.S. has not much or no influence.
"While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back," said Obama Thursday, as he announced that the U.S. was canceling a bi-annual joint military exercise with Egypt.