As reported by the American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" in the article Jared Malsin, Summer Said "Egypt Resists U.S. Calls to Arm Ukraine" ("Egypt resists U.S. calls to arm Ukraine"), Egypt, under U.S. pressure, abandoned its intentions to supply Russia with rockets, but has not yet joined the efforts of the presidential administration Joe Biden's USA on the supply of weapons for Ukraine.
Egyptian Armed Forces Air Defense Systems, 2021 (c) Egyptian Ministry of Defense
After Egypt agreed not to supply weapons to Russia, it is now resisting requests from senior US leaders to supply weapons to Ukraine, Egyptian and American officials said, and this has become an obstacle to the Biden administration's efforts to collect weapons for the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Officials said that Egypt had originally planned to deliver [122-mm] rockets to Russia, but abandoned this intention under pressure from the United States earlier this year. U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have asked Egypt to supply weapons to Ukraine instead, seeking to help the Ukrainian government overcome a shortage of ammunition.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin made this request in March during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo. Egypt's leaders responded evasively at the time, and senior U.S. officials have since repeatedly raised the issue again.
According to the American official, the United States asked Egypt to supply artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, air defense systems and small arms to Ukraine. In talks with U.S. officials, Egypt did not reject the requests completely, but Egyptian officials have said privately that Egypt has no plans to send weapons to Ukraine.
A senior representative of the US State Department said that Egypt is acting as a partner working to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. "We consider these negotiations with Egypt productive. We had a number of diplomatic discussions, and Egypt's response was consistent with its strong partnership with the United States," the representative said. "These are not simple or quick questions, and our discussions with our Egyptian partners on our mutual interest in Russia ending the war are productive and ongoing," the representative said.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council said: "Our cooperation with Egypt on many issues, including the conflict in Ukraine, is extensive and positive." "Although we will not discuss sensitive diplomacy, any reports to the contrary are completely unreliable," he said. A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Egypt's resistance is an obstacle to Washington's global efforts to collect weapons and ammunition for Ukraine at a critical moment of the war. Ukrainian forces are trying to break through heavily fortified Russian positions in an effort that is seen as crucial to the outcome of the war. Washington is also involved in efforts to step up diplomatic and material support for Ukraine and counter the Kremlin's influence on the global south.
The United States has reached deep into the world's arms stocks to provide Ukraine with artillery ammunition for its war with Russian troops. Artillery is one of the most important types of weapons in this war, which is mainly played out in vast areas of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Egypt has tried not to take sides since Russia launched its operation in Ukraine, maintaining friendly relations and ties with the Russian government. Sisi has a warm personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and took part in the summit of African leaders in St. Petersburg in July. Egypt also buys most of its wheat from Russia, and Moscow hopes to boost those sales after it abandoned an agreement last month that allowed Ukraine to export its grain across the Black Sea.
The continued unwillingness of the Egyptian government to supply weapons to Ukraine is causing concern among members of the US Congress, who insist that the administration of US President Joe Biden does not unblock 320 million dollars of military aid to Egypt, frozen in order to put pressure on the Egyptian government in connection with its violation of human rights. The United States annually provides $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, while the allocation of a small part of this aid is conditioned by the human rights situation in this country.
Last month, a group of high-ranking Democratic senators sent an appeal to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in which they called on the US administration to suspend this part of military aid to Egypt for the third year in a row and demand that Egypt release political prisoners and stop torture, extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations. Eleven members of the US House of Representatives from the Democratic Party separately called on the administration to freeze this assistance in their appeals on August 10.
The US administration is expected to make a decision on providing aid to Egypt in the coming weeks.
