Telegraph:Russia seeks to up Middle East influence with Egypt mission Russia is launching a new front in its attempt to wrest power in the Middle East away from America, dispatching a high-level delegation to sell arms and influence in Egypt. Both the foreign and defence ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu, will meet their opposite numbers in Cairo on Thursday - in the latter case, Gen Abdulfattah al-Sisi, who has emerged from three years of troubles as Egypt’s new “pharaoh” or strongman. Egypt is looking to buy military equipment following a partial withdrawal of support by its western allies, including the United States and Britain, over the killings of thousands of protesters in the summer after the army’s overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi. Among the items it is believed to want are riot control equipment and high-end arms for special forces to use in the battle against Islamist insurgents in the Sinai peninsula. The shopping list is said by the Russians to extend as far as MiG 29 fighter aircraft, though deals on such major purchases are further off and depend on Egypt’s ability to pay amid a financial crisis. Egypt’s military, backed by anti-Islamist television channels, were furious with the United States for its perceived support for Mr Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, though the US itself said it merely backed the democratic process. The arms deals being negotiated would be the largest for decades, according to reports from Moscow. Nabil Fahmy, the new Egyptian foreign minister, said in his first press conference that he intended to move Cairo’s foreign policy beyond that of ex-President Hosni Mubarak, who was closely tied to Washington. Since then, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, Mikhail Fradkov, has visited, and according to several reports opened discussions over the possibility of establishing a Russian naval base in Egypt. Moscow’s only current base in the Mediterranean, at Tartous in Syria, is under serious threat from the war there. On Monday, a Russian warship, the Varyag, docked at Alexandria on an official visit and was met with marching bands and a 21-gun salute. “National co-operation between Egypt and Russia never stopped,” Badr Abdelatty, the foreign ministry spokesman, said last night. “For the two ministers to come together is a strong political signal that they are interested in deepening the relationship in all things. “We are expressing our strong interest in enhancing the relationship.” The rapprochement between Egypt and Russia, four decades after President Anwar Sadat threw out the Soviet advisers cultivated by his socialist military predecessor, Col Gamal Abdul-Nasser, is part of a crunching shift in the geopolitics of the Middle East. Like Egypt’s military, the country’s strongest regional backer, Saudi Arabia, was astonished that President Barack Obama would not intervene to support America’s long-serving place-man in Cairo, Mr Mubarak, in 2011. Saudi Arabia has pumped money into Egypt since Mr Morsi was overthrown, and would of necessity be underwriting any major military expenditure. Saudi Arabia is also angry with the United States for refusing to do more to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The contradiction there - that Russia, whom some say Saudi Arabia is partly responsible for encouraging Egypt to cultivate, is Syria’s main European backer - leads some analysts to speculate that both Egypt and its Gulf allies are playing a game of bluff to force Mr Obama to do their bidding. Mr Abdelatty insisted that the aim of the outreach to Russia was to “add to, not replace” Egypt’s alliances. But Theodore Karasik, an analyst of Russian policy in the Middle East at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said President Vladimir Putin’s skill lay in handling competing interests simultaneously, while the Obama administration seemed only able to handle one. “The Americans are losing their allies because Washington is unable to put forward a viable policy towards the region vis-a-vis Syria, Iran and now Egypt,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Morsi issued his first statement since he was detained - something which happened on the day before his formal overthrow on July 3, he said. He said he had been held at a naval base for the four months until his first court appearance last week. During that time his whereabouts were kept secret by Egypt’s new rulers. In a letter read to a press conference by his legal team after they were allowed to visit him for the first time, he said he had been “kidnapped”, accused Gen Abdulfattah al-Sisi, his defence minister who turned on him and deposed him, of treason, and said he would not recognise the court trying him. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/10447956/Russia-seeks-to-up-Middle-East-influence-with-Egypt-mission.html #r4bia #rabaa #Nahda #military_coup #morsi #egypt #cnn #bbc #usa #Reuters #london #fox #news #paris #Europa #sos #where_is_my_vote #human_rights_watch #prodemocracy #anticoup #sisi_traitor_killer #askar_liars #egyanticoup #retweet #follow #followback #win #RabaaMassacre #Egyptmassacre
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 12:15:00 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015