The CBS television network says it has rejected a request by Egypt’s envoy to the US not to broadcast an interview with President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
The 60 Minutes programme cited Mr Sisi as confirming the Egyptian military was working with Israel to combat jihadist militants in the Sinai peninsula.
He also denied Egypt was detaining any political prisoners and defended a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2013.
CBS says it was asked not to air the interview soon after it was recorded.
There was no immediate response to the report from the Egyptian government.
What did the president say?
CBS did not provide a full transcript of the interview, but it said the retired field marshal was questioned about the crackdown launched after he led the military’s overthrow of the democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.
More than 900 people – most of them supporters of Morsi’s now-banned Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood – were killed as security forces cleared Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and Nahda Square in Cairo on 14 August 2013. Another 120 people died at Ramses Square two days later.
Mr Sisi, who was serving defence minister at the time, was asked by CBS if he had given the order to fire on the protesters in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. He replied: “There were thousands of armed people in the sit-in for more than 40 days. We tried every peaceful means to disperse them.”
Human Rights Watch has said few people were armed, and that the systematic nature of the killings suggested they were part of a policy to use lethal force, making them probably crimes against humanity.
The president was also asked about reports by human rights activists that as many as 60,000 political opponents have probably been detained since 2013.
“I don’t know where they got that figure. I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt. Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology we have to intervene regardless of their numbers,” Mr Sisi said.
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