An Egyptian official source on Tuesday denied information from the US newspaper. The Washington Post that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the production of more than 40,000 missiles to supply Russia.
“What the newspaper publishes is an informative frivolity that is not true”said the official source, according to Egyptian television Al Qahera news and the state daily Al Ahram.
The same source said that “Egypt has a balanced policy with all international parties, whose principles are peace, stability and development.”
The source has not been identified by Egyptian state media, according to the Spanish agency EFE.
Classified documents consulted by The Washington Post and published on the Discord platform show a series of conversations between Al-Sisi and government officials about possible arms sales to Russia.
In one, on February 17 this year, Al-Sisi instructs a senior official to secretly order the production of weapons to “avoid trouble with the West.”
According to the document, the president’s interlocutor said he would instruct his officials to work hard to produce the weapons.
The official explained that it was the least Egypt could do “to repay Russia for its previous aid”.
However, it is not specified what kind of help he was referring to.
A US government source told the Post that the United States is not aware of any such agreement between Russia and Egypt.
The government of Egypt has so far not released any official statement in response to the information released by the Post.
The Egyptian embassy in Washington did not confirm the document’s veracity to the newspaper, limiting itself to ensuring that Al-Sisi’s government has a position of non-intervention regarding the war in Ukraine.
The publication about Egypt came a few days after the publication on the Twitter and Telegram networks of documents from the Pentagon (US Department of Defense) containing data on arms shipments to Ukraine and references to the capabilities of Ukrainian battalions.
Ukraine relies on the supply of weapons from its Western allies to fight the Russian forces, which invaded the country on February 24, 2022.
Kiev’s allies have also imposed successive economic sanctions on Moscow to try to reduce Russia’s ability to fund Ukraine’s war effort.
Source: DN
