The documents, dated February 17 this year, summarize a conversation between the Egyptian president and a senior military official. He says Egypt wants to produce missiles for Russia. In addition, the country also wants to supply artillery ammunition and gunpowder. After Sisi notified his official, the same official was told that the production and export of the goods must remain secret to “prevent problems with the West.”
United States dependent Egypt
For Egypt, the revelation is painful because it largely depends on the United States. For example, since 1978 the North African country has received over eighty billion dollars from the US for the economy, but above all for the Egyptian defence. Fifty billion dollars have been spent on this. Egypt is in dire need of Western money because the economy is in a dire state. Recently, the country had to nearly halve the value of the Egyptian pound in order to qualify for funding from the International Monetary Fund.
Egyptian Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid has neither denied nor confirmed military aid to Russia to the Washington Post. “Egypt’s position has been based from the outset on non-involvement in this crisis and a commitment to maintain an equal distance from both sides, while Egypt’s UN General Assembly resolutions express its support for the United Nations Charter and international law bears this out”.
However, it is unclear whether Egypt actually supplied the missiles and munitions to Russia. “We are not aware of any implementation of that plan. We haven’t seen it yet,” an unnamed government source told the US newspaper.
“Considering Our Relationship”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy argues that if the contents of the documents turn out to be correct, the relationship with Egypt should be considered. Egypt is one of our oldest allies in the Middle East. If it is true that al-Sisi is secretly building missiles for Russia to use in Ukraine, then we should consider the state of our relationship.”
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The documents come from a leak containing other documents relating to the war in Ukraine and other diplomatic topics. The Washington Post obtained the documents through a person who shared the secret information on Discord, a chat channel mostly used by gamers.