Although Egypt had previously dropped plans to send rockets to Russia under Washington’s pressure, yet it resists the United States’ calls to arm Ukraine, according to Wall Street Journal.
The U.S. had managed to convince Egypt not to send rockets to Russia but has so far failed to persuade Cairo to arm Ukraine instead, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. and Egyptian officials.
After persuading the Egyptian government not to send weaponry to Moscow earlier this year, Washington asked the African country to instead send artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, air-defense systems, and small arms to Ukraine.
Although Cairo has not categorically rejected the request made by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in March, Egyptian officials said privately that the country has no plans to accommodate it, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While attempting to stay neutral in the Russo-Ukrainian War, Egypt maintains a close relationship with Moscow. The country also imports most of its wheat from Russia.
Egypt is at the same time a close military partner of the U.S., which provides it with $1.3 billion every year in military aid.
The Wall Street Journal report, by Jared Malsin and Summer Said, goes as follows:
After Egypt agreed it wouldn’t send weapons to Russia, it is now resisting requests from senior U.S. leaders to send them to Ukraine, Egyptian and American officials say, posing an obstacle for the Biden administration’s push to generate arms for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Egypt initially planned to send rockets to Russia but dropped that plan under pressure from the U.S. earlier this year, the officials say. U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, asked Egypt to supply weapons to Ukraine instead, seeking to help the Ukrainian government overcome a shortage of ammunition.
Austin made the request in March when the secretary of defense met Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, in Cairo. Egypt’s leaders were noncommittal at the time, and senior U.S. officials have raised the request in multiple encounters since then, the officials said.
The U.S. asked Egypt to supply artillery shells, antitank missiles, air-defense systems and small arms for Ukraine, according to a U.S. official. In conversations with U.S. officials, Egypt hasn’t definitively rejected the requests, but Egyptian officials said privately that Egypt has no plans to send the weapons.
A senior State Department official said Egypt was acting as a partner working toward a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. “We find these conversations with Egypt productive. On a range of diplomatic discussions, Egypt’s response has been befitting of a strong U.S. partner,” the official said.
“These are not simple or quick issues, and our discussions with our Egyptian partners on our mutual interest in ending Russia’s war are productive and ongoing,” the official also said.
spokesperson for the National Security Council said, “Our cooperation with Egypt on a host of issues, including the conflict in Ukraine, is extensive and positive.”
“While we will not discuss sensitive diplomacy, any reporting to the contrary is categorically false,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesman for Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Egypt’s reluctance is a hurdle for Washington’s globe-spanning effort to drum up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. Ukrainian forces are attempting to push through heavily-fortified Russian lines in an effort that is seen as being crucial to the outcome of the war. Washington is also engaged in an effort to rally diplomatic and material support for Ukraine and counter the Kremlin’s influence in the global south.
The U.S. has reached deep into its global stockpiles to provide Ukraine with artillery rounds for its war with invading Russian forces. Artillery is one of the most important weapons in the war, which is largely playing out across broad stretches of land in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Egypt has attempted not to take sides since Russia invaded Ukraine, maintaining friendly ties with the Russian government. Sisi has a warm personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and attended a summit of African leaders in St. Petersburg in July. Egypt also buys the majority of its wheat from Russia, and Moscow is looking to increase those sales after it backed out of an agreement last month that had allowed Ukraine to export grain via the Black Sea.
The Egyptian government’s failure to deliver the weapons so far has raised concerns among members of Congress who are pressuring the Biden administration not to release $320 million in military aid in order to maintain pressure on the government over its human-rights abuses. The U.S. provides Egypt with $1.3 billion in military aid each year, with a small portion conditioned on the country’s human-rights record.
A group of senior Democratic senators wrote a letter last month to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the administration to withhold the aid for a third straight year to urge Egypt to release political prisoners and stop torture, extrajudicial killings and other human-rights abuses. Eleven Democratic members of the House separately urged the administration to withhold the aid in a letter on Thursday.
The administration is expected to make a decision on whether to release the aid in the coming weeks.
