According to leaked US intelligence documents obtained by the Washington Post, Egypt planned to secretly produce and ship approximately 40,000 rockets to Russia to supplement its depleted supply of ammunition during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. According to the outlet, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with his top military officials and discussed providing artillery rounds and gunpowder to Russia. El-Sisi requested that the entire plane be kept under wraps “to avoid a problem with the West.”
The classified document was dated February 17, according to the Washington Post.
The news has caught American officials and politicians off guard.
“If Sisi is secretly building rockets for Russia that could be used in Ukraine,” Connecticut junior senator Chris Murphy told the outlet, “we need to have a serious reckoning about the state of our relationship.”
According to Fox News, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby declined to confirm the documents’ authenticity but warned that the information is not for public consumption.
Image source : Washington Institution
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Egypt and Russia relations over the years
Russia and Egypt have a complicated history that includes times of close cooperation and tension. Egypt and the Soviet Union had a close relationship during the Cold War, with the Soviet Union providing Egypt with military and economic aid. However, after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the Soviet Union discontinued its military assistance to Egypt.
Russia and Egypt have re-established ties in recent years, with Russia providing military and economic assistance to Egypt. Egypt signed a $3.5 billion arms deal with Russia in 2015, and Egypt and Russia agreed to build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant in 2018.
Furthermore, the two countries have collaborated on a number of regional issues, including the Syrian conflict and the Middle East’s fight against terrorism. Their relationship, however, has not been without its difficulties. A Russian passenger plane was shot down over the Sinai Peninsula in 2015, killing all 224 people on board. Following the incident, Russia suspended all flights to Egypt, severely affecting the country’s tourism industry.
Overall, while Russia and Egypt’s relationship has been marked by periods of cooperation and tension, the two countries have maintained diplomatic ties and collaborated on a number of issues.
Image source : Radio free europe
Egypt’s Covert Plan to Supply Russia with Rockets for Ukraine Conflict
A leaked top-secret Pentagon document suggests that Egypt was planning to secretly provide Russia with thousands of rockets, artillery rounds, and gunpowder for the ongoing war in Ukraine. The document, dated February 17, describes conversations between Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and senior military officials discussing the production of 40,000 rockets for Russia. Salah al-Din, the minister of state for military production, reportedly suggested that the rockets be labeled as for the Egyptian army to avoid problems with the West. The report said that supplying Russia with weapons was “the least Egypt could do to repay Russia for unspecified help earlier,” although the details of earlier collaboration were not mentioned.
The intelligence leak is part of a steady drip of highly sensitive US documents that have been found on social media sites in recent days. The apparent leak presents a “very serious” risk to US national security, the Pentagon said. Egypt is a major US ally and recipient of American military and economic aid. The apparent strengthening of Egypt-Russia relations amid Russia’s isolation from the West suggests that Egypt may have turned to alternative global powers like Russia to create greater leverage over the US, especially after the US withheld a portion of its annual security payment to Egypt in September due to Cairo’s poor human rights record.
