Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is one of the US’s closest allies in the region. According to a supposed leak of US intelligence documents, he recently planned to give Russia missiles in secret.
In the past few months, a large number of secret US documents have been posted on Discord, a popular chat app for gamers. This has been called one of the worst leaks of US secrets in years.
One of the leaked documents is said to show Russian intelligence officers talking about talks with the United Arab Emirates, another important US ally, in which they agree to work together against the US and British intelligence agencies.
Sisi ordered the production of up to 40,000 rockets in February. He told his officials to keep the plan secret “to avoid problems with the West,” the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing a top-secret document.
The 17 February document is a summary of what is said to have been said in conversations between Sisi and high-ranking Egyptian military officials about plans to give Russia artillery rounds and gunpowder, among other things.
International sanctions have made it hard for Russia to get more weapons for its war on Ukraine, which is now in its second year. As a result, Russia has been scrambling to restock its dwindling arsenal.
In response to the leaked document, a spokesman for Egypt’s foreign ministry said, “Egypt’s position from the start has been to stay out of this crisis and keep an equal distance from both sides while affirming Egypt’s support for the UN charter and international law in the UN General Assembly resolutions.”
Under the condition of anonymity, a US government official did not deny the intelligence, but told the Washington Post, “We do not know of any execution of that plan.” This was in reference to Egypt’s plans to send rockets to other countries.
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“Country of Interest”
In another document that was leaked, US intelligence said that it had recorded Russian intelligence officers bragging that they had convinced the UAE to “work together against US and UK intelligence agencies.”
Claims that the UAE was getting closer to Russia were called “categorically false” by the UAE government.
Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Rosenberg of the US Treasury said in March that the UAE was “a country of focus” as Washington tried to cut off Russia’s ties to the rest of the world economy.
In the past few months, the US has put more pressure on its Gulf ally because of its relationship with Moscow.
The tweet below confirms the news:
The West is getting more and more worried that the UAE is giving Moscow a key economic lifeline, which could help Moscow’s war effort.
Many of the parts that go into Russia’s missiles and drones come from the West.
Rosenberg said that companies in the UAE were helping Russia get around international sanctions so it could buy more than $5 million worth of US semiconductors and other export-controlled parts, some of which can be used on the battlefield.
Russian government data looked at by the Free Russia Foundation in Washington, DC, shows that the UAE was still sending drones to Russia as late as December.
The group says that the UAE, Turkey, Cyprus, and China have all “dramatically increased” the number of goods they send to Russia.
Egypt or the UAE might be taking a risk if they try to help Russia with its war effort.
Egypt’s economy is in a terrible state, and it needs help from the West more than ever.
It is also heavily invested in a security partnership with the U.S., which has given the country more than $1 billion a year in security aid for decades, and Cairo could risk causing the U.S. to put sanctions on the country.
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In the Meantime, the US Has Helped Keep the UAE Safe for Years
The UAE has been trying to find a middle ground between being a long-term US ally in the Middle East and a neutral business hub.
Emirati Trade Minister Thani bin Ahmed al-Zeyoudi said that non-oil trade between Russia and the UAE grew by 57% in the first nine months of 2022, which broke records. He also promised to “push trade to even greater heights.”
Dubai has made a name for itself as an international business hub, and the chaos caused by the Ukraine war has helped it.
This year, Russians became Dubai’s biggest real estate buyers, making the city the fourth most active luxury property market in the world, after New York, Los Angeles, and London.
In addition to oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin, Dubai is also getting a lot of Russian tech workers, many of whom want to get away from Vladimir Putin’s war.
The UAE is also taking advantage of Western sanctions that are meant to stop Russia from getting its oil money. The port of Fujairah in the UAE has become a place where crude oil and oil products from Russia are sent to other places.
Last year, the Russian energy company Lukoil, which is owned by the government, moved its trading operations to Dubai.
Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said that the US Justice Department is looking into how classified documents got out.
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