Secret US documents show that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi planned to produce 40,000 missiles for Russia in February and instructed officials to keep the production and shipment of missiles secret “to avoid problems with the West.”
Source: The Washington Post
Details: According to a leaked US intelligence document, the newspaper writes, the President of Egypt, which is one of the closest US allies in the Middle East and the largest recipient of US aid, recently ordered subordinates to manufacture up to 40,000 missiles for covert shipment to Russia.
Part of the secret document, which is dated Feb. 17, is said to summarize likely conversations between Sisi and senior Egyptian military officials, as well as plans to supply Russia with artillery shells and gunpowder. In the document, Sisi instructs officials to keep the production and supply of missiles secret “to avoid problems with the West.”
WP obtained the document from an array of images of classified files posted in February and March on Discord, a chat app popular among gamers. The document has not been previously reported.
A US government spokesman, who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity, said “we have no knowledge of the implementation of this plan.” “We have not seen this (deliveries of missiles from Egypt to the Russian Federation – ed.) take place,” he added.
WP notes that “providing arms to Russia for the war in Ukraine would be a potentially explosive gambit for Egypt, which, despite deepening ties with Moscow, remains interested in partnering with the US, which has been providing the country with more than $1 billion a year in the form of security assistance.”
The document does not explicitly state why Russia is interested in acquiring missiles, but its military spends huge amounts of ammunition, and the US government claims that North Korea is secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells, and China is considering doing the same.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees, said that “Egypt is one of our oldest allies in the Middle East” and therefore “if it is true that Sisi is secretly building missiles for Russia that could be used in Ukraine, we should seriously reflect on the state of our relations.”
Sarah Margon, director of foreign policy at the Open Society Foundation and the Biden administration’s only nominee for the highest office in the State Department of Human Rights, said that “the deliberate sale and supply of missiles to the Russian government, which has committed such blatant military and other brutal crimes, is simply out of the ordinary, especially for a supposedly close US ally.”
According to WP, the document describes that on February 1, Sisi ordered the missile shipments to be kept secret to “avoid trouble with the West” and told a man referred to as Salah al-Din that factory workers should be told that the missiles were intended for Egyptian army.
Salah al-Din, the newspaper suggests, is most likely Mohammed Salah al-Din, Minister of State for Defense Production.
The gunpowder proposed by the Russian Federation, which is mentioned in the document, would come from “Factory 18” – this is the name of a chemical plant that has existed for several decades, the newspaper writes.
According to the WP, the document quoted Salah al-Din as saying that he would “order his people to work in shifts if necessary, because that’s the least Egypt can do to thank the Russian Federation for the assistance provided earlier.” In addition, the document quoted Salah al-Din as saying that the Russians told him they were ready to “buy anything.” It is not clear from the document what exactly the previous Russian aid was, the newspaper notes.
The document, according to WP, also quoted the Egyptian president as saying that he was considering selling “normal goods” to China to make room for “more Sakr 45 production.” We are talking about 122-mm shells, which are produced in Egypt.
The document does not explicitly state whether the missiles to be produced for Russia were Sakr 45, but such missiles would be compatible with Russian Grad multiple launch rocket systems, the newspaper notes.
“Although the document does not indicate how the US government obtained the details of the discussions, some of the information contained in the recently released documents appears to come from radar intelligence, which uses technical means to intercept communications. The US government has long had extensive ability to eavesdrop and intercept communications foreign leaders,” writes WP.
It is noted that the conversation involving Sisi on February 1 took place a few days after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with the Egyptian President during a visit to Cairo. Immediately after Blinken’s visit, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian leaders.
What preceded this:
- The US Department of Defense is still assessing the extent of the leakage of classified information in recent weeks, which, in particular, contained information about the combat capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the actions of American allies.
- The US State Department claims that the incident with the publication of classified documents of the US Department of Defense will not affect support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
- Formerly US Department of Justice leak investigation launched the sheer number of US intelligence documents that have been posted on social media in recent weeks.
- The US presidential administration does not yet know who is behind the leak of secret military documents.
