Egypt ‘looking to Russia’ for arms after US aid freeze
Egypt ‘looking to Russia’ for arms after US aid freeze | The Times of Israel.
( Another foreign policy “achievement” to add to Obama’s growing list. – JW )
‘Historic achievement’ under which Cairo came into Washington’s orbit after 1979 about to ‘go down the drain,’ Israeli TV report claims
Egypt is looking to Russia to supply it with arms now that the US has frozen much of its military aid to the Egyptians, Israeli television reported Friday night.
The “historic achievement,” under which the US brought Egypt into its orbit in the years since the 1979 Camp David Israel-Egypt peace treaty, is about to “go down the drain,” the Channel 2 report said.
It referred to comments earlier this week by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who said ties between Cairo and Washington were in “turmoil” and told CNN that Egypt would have to “find other sources” to meet its national security needs.
By “other sources,” said the TV report, Fahmy was referring to Russia, with whom Egypt was now looking to conclude a major arms deal.
This would represent a major change of orientation for Egypt, since its entire army had been built on US equipment for the past three decades.
The news came four days after reports that Israel had argued “directly and bluntly” with the Obama administration against US aid cuts to Egypt, telling Washington it was making “a strategic error” in reducing financial assistance to Cairo in the wake of the military’s ouster of president Mohammed Morsi.
The unusually frank Israeli intervention, a Channel 2 report said on Monday, was partially successful, in that US funding of relevance to military strongman Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s fight against Islamist terrorists in the Sinai is not being affected by the cutback.
However, other planned cuts in aid to the Egyptian military are going ahead, to Israel’s open dismay, the report said, quoting unnamed Israeli government sources.
Dissatisfied with Egypt’s progress toward reinstating a democratic government, the US announced last week that it was freezing a sizable portion of the $1.5 billion it provides Egypt each year. US officials said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters, at a cost of more than $500 million, and M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The US had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises.
The US will continue to provide support for health and education and counterterrorism, spare military parts, military training and education, border security and security assistance in the Sinai Peninsula, where near-daily attacks against security forces and soldiers have increasingly resembled a full-fledged insurgency.
Israeli officials told their US counterparts that it was “a strategic error” to cut aid to Egypt, and that the US needed to look at “wider interests,” the Monday report said. Officials urged Washington to cancel the cut altogether, and if that was not possible, to at least redirect military funding for planes and tanks to instead bolster the fight against terror. This advice was ignored, but the funding already in place for fighting terror was not cut, as it might otherwise have been, according to the report.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, April 2013 (photo credit: AP Photo/Jim Watson/Pool/File)
The Israeli officials reportedly told their American counterparts that undermining El-Sissi might simply lead him to seek military assistance instead from Gulf states and Saudi Arabia.
The TV report did not specify which Israeli officials raised their concerns with which American counterparts.
However, last Tuesday, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon held talks with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon.
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WarSclerotic 
October 19, 2013 at 5:13 PM
I hope nobody here is suspicioning me for being an 0bama’s fan, but I have an interesting (I hope) theory why America is systematically closing its middle east business and is giving terrain here to the Russians. Beyond the economical reasons and the ideological ones – 0bama doesn’t want too much US involvement here – there might be a deep strategic move too, doing this redeployment. Less US involvement in Arab/Muslim countries, less US troops, less target for terrorists, less hate; you see us less, you’ll hate us less. This wont solve the Al Qaeda problem – that cat has gone entirely out of the bag – but, at least, it will reduce the local tensions(in the vision of 0bama and his strategic advisors). We don’t claim they are right, we only want to understand what might be their reasons for acting in the way they are. The actual appeasement regarding Iran is also an important part of this puzzle, putting 0bama ”on good” with the Shiites, too. He tried very hard to keep good relations with the Muslim Brotherhood(Sunnis), and he is sacrificing the US relations with Egypt for achieving that. Regarding Egypt, his bet was correct when Mubarak fall, because then 0bama gained the country and the Sunni movement. This is why he didn’t gave a shit about Mubarak. He has seen the jack pot in his hands in Egypt, then. But today, when 0bama must make a choice between the Brotherhood and Egypt he will chose the Brotherhood, because its making sense in his Shiite Sunni puzzle which he is trying to put together ( not to make peace between them, but for them not to make war with the US). This might be the new US grand strategy in our zone and nobody can force the president of the USA to make deals here that will hurt the US; instead, he can close deals accordingly with his vision, even though the Saudis, Egypt and Israel may fuck themselves. And, as a bonus, we’ll say that the US is not so depending – if any – on the Saudi petrol. So, you see what I mean.
Pax Americana, brothers. Enjoy it.
October 19, 2013 at 7:37 PM
You are only looking at half of the picture. Obama is not just trying to Islamize the Middle East, but the USA also. Look at how many Muslim Bro’s he has in his administration.
October 19, 2013 at 8:17 PM
Look, once again I have an urgency to admit that 0bama is not on my favorites list. After saying that, lets get down to business.
1.0bama is not trying to Islamize the middle east. The Middle East
is already a region with strong Islamic flags. Muslims are living here. Arab countries exist here. There is no need to Islamize the middle east and 0bama cannot ”Islamize the Middle East”.
2. The Muslim Brotherhood of the USA – MABUS – is a very strong organization. Yes, my friend. Don’t look at me like that. Rest a moment and listen. Millions are the members of this organization in the US. Many of them helped Obama in the elections(and not because he is or he isn’t a Muslim{by the way, he is not}. But Hussein sounds great in their ears, doesn’t it?). So helped him some Hispanic millions, too. Look man, I’m sorry to say this, but the whitey Romney didn’t have a chance facing this gigantic ethnic tsunami. 0bama and his team knew to exploit this reality to the maximum. So, some honorable Ahmed professors are working now for 0bama, big deal.
You want more? I’ll give you more. Lets talk about Valery Jarrett, his closest advisor, friend and the ”gray glove” in the White House.
This woman was born in Iran, from American parents, and her family reached the States when she was only five -5- years old. She is speaking Farsi – Persian. I have pointed to her an year ago, already. Joseph knows what I’m talking about. She is now leading the contacts with the Iranians.
So 0bama, my friend, is far more complex than a black American president who’s middle name is Hussein, is flirting with the extreme left and has also many haters. And now, if you have time and will, please read my previous analysis once more time. Its trying to explain his middle east politics. Really thx.
October 19, 2013 at 6:31 PM
Makes sense to me Luis.
October 19, 2013 at 8:20 PM
Thx, John.
October 20, 2013 at 12:29 AM
I,am scratching my head , a ha something is coming up , like 8o USA nukes in turkey ( means obsolete that they can not explode ? )( and who really control them ? ), and advanced weapons selling to the UAE and Saudi like bunker busters and tanks and F16 plane and a lot more.
If i was Sisi i would have a nice talk whit Saudi and in the same time find a mo bro solution beneficial for both.
The Islamic hart is beating heavenly in mekka.