US-Egyptian relations on the rocks. El-Sisi wouldn’t accept Obama’s phone call
US-Egyptian relations on the rocks. El-Sisi wouldn’t accept Obama’s phone call.
When the clashes between Egyptian security forces and pro-Morsi protesters were at their peak in Cairo Wednesday, Aug. 14 – 525 dead and 3,700 wounded to date – President Barack Obama put in a call to Egypt’s strongman, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, debkafile’s intelligence sources report. The US president wanted to give the general a dressing-down much on the lines of the call he made to former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 at the high point of the Arab Spring Tahrir Sq demonstrations against his rule, namely: Stop repressing the protesters and firing live ammunition. Step down!
When Mubarak asked for a three or four days’ grace to break up the massed rally, Obama shot back that he has to quit NOW!
And indeed, on Feb. 11, the army announced the president’s resignation.
Realizing what was coming, Gen. El-Sissi decided not to accept President Obama’s call, our sources report. The Egyptian officials who received it informed the US president politely that the right person for him to address was Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour and they would be glad to transfer the call to him. The White House callers declined.
This anecdote shows that the military strongman is not only determined to avoid the pitfalls which brought Mubarak down but is equally determined to keep the US administration from interfering in his plans for driving the Muslim Brotherhood out of Egyptian politics.
Diplomatic condemnation of those plans is building up inWestern capitals. Wednesday night, the Obama White House issued a statement strongly condemning “the use of violence against protesters in Egypt” and the state of emergency. Egyptian ambassadors in Paris, London and Berlin received denunciations and expressions of concern from their host governments, and Turkey demanded a UN Security Council emergency session on the situation in Egypt.
debkafile’s sources report that harsh international condemnation of Gen. El-Sissi’s crackdown will do more harm than good. The backlash will come in three forms:
1. The Muslim Brotherhood will be encouraged to pursue increasingly extreme measures to fight the Egyptian army in the expectation of international applause.
2. The generals will be encouraged to escalate their steps for repressing the Brotherhood.
3. The Saudis and the Gulf Emirates will redouble their support for the Egyptian general and his campaign against the Brotherhood. This will widen the rift between those Arab rulers and the Obama administration.
Our intelligence sources also disclose that, while President Obama was trying to get through to Gen. El-Sissi, the general was on the phone with Prince Bandar, Director of Saudi Intelligence.
On July 31, Bandar arrived in Moscow and was immediately received by President Vladimir Putin for a conversation that lasted four hours. The Saudi prince next received an invitation to visit Washington at his earliest convenience and meet with President Obama.
Bandar has still not responded to that invitation.
Clearly, the US president’s problem with the Egyptian situation is a lot more complicated than pulling the army off the Muslim Brotherhood’s backs. He needs to somehow snap the strategic alliance unfolding between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the rapport between the Egyptian general and the Saudi prince.
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WarSclerotic 
August 15, 2013 at 5:50 PM
Obama’s approach to this new Egyptian crisis is that of a sorry clown who desperately is trying to make his audience laughing and receiving in exchange only ”rotten tomatoes” (but that was funny!).
Putin is feeling the ”cold in the air” and is ready to invite Sisi to a coffee. And now consider this: by treating Egypt like this and sanctioning the USA support to Egypt, Obama will cause to the very base of the Israeli- Egyptian peace treaty to collapse. Is he an idiot or an evil man? Because, as he is continuing in this direction, the target is clear: by shutting in Egypt direction he, in fact, is trying to destroy one of the very important columns which helps Israel the most in the region, the peace treaty with Egypt.
Now, after we see and understand the ugly face of Obama, we can understand why Israel is so delaying its business with Iran: in an eventuality of an Israeli attack on the Islamic republic, we’ll see Obama giving a speech against aggression and aggressor. And the military shoulder, the aerial train with military supply to Israel in this case? You can forget about it. He wont military resupply an aggressor country(Israel) against a peaceful one(Iran).
This catastrophe, who is Obama, after encouraged the Muslim Brotherhood two years ago against Mubarak, is now continuing to cook the same bitter soup for all the people in our region.
August 15, 2013 at 6:40 PM
@ Luis: A very accurate assment of the situation; don’t listen to Obama’s words, watch his deeds. Obama can’t be trusted; all Egyptians know that now; from the Mo Bros, to the army, to the secularists, they all hate Obama, it’s the one thing that they all agree on, and that will cost the US, and maybe Israel, too, as Egypt runs into the open arms of Russia and/or China. And, yes, if Israel were to attack Iran, Israel would be very much alone; Obama may not go so far as to condemn the attack, but he certainly doesn’t have Israel’s back.
August 15, 2013 at 6:46 PM
…And you remember the jets Obama gave to Egypt under the brotherhood? The assistance? But we also remember the Christians murdered there by the brotherhood followers and to that Obama didn’t have anything to say; churches were burnt, Egyptian believers in Christ were killed, but the peace man Obama had nothing to say about it. And all these why? Because what Obama cared most was its voters base from MB of USA (MABUS). And no, I’m not kidding. He who understands will understand.
August 16, 2013 at 8:15 PM
Rubbish luis the whole world has just watched muti[ple pieces of film of Al sisi troops gunning down hundreds of unarmed civilians,would your government do this to your people if you think that it is right you have something wrong with you