If the news is confirmed, it would be the closest thing to a betrayal. The supposed traitor, Egypt, denies it. But if it were true, maybe he couldn't do otherwise. We are talking about one of the pearls of the secret documents of the United States whose leak in different forums and social networks is driving the heads of the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies of the country and the Government of Joe Biden as a whole crazy: as announced on Monday The Washington Post, one of those papers revealed that last February Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi of Egypt ordered the country's military chiefs and senior officials to produce 40,000 rockets to, along with abundant artillery ammunition and gunpowder, send it everything to Russia covertly.
According to the "top secret" record, from one of the US agencies issuing the leaked papers, Sisi stressed to the military commanders the need to keep the plan secret "to avoid problems with the West."
According to Al Qahera News, an Egyptian state-affiliated outlet, a government source in the country called the Post's story "informational nonsense."
Egypt keeps a careful equidistance from the war between Russia and Ukraine. Cairo maintains increasingly better relations with Moscow. And he defends the cessation of hostilities in said conflict with a view to opening negotiations to seek a political solution to the conflict.
"Our position in the face of this crisis is based, from the beginning, on not getting involved and committing ourselves to keeping the same distance from the parties," Egyptian Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in response to questions about the veracity of the leaked document. And he recalled that his government supports "the charter of the United Nations and international law."
But Egypt is an important partner of the United States, from which it has received $1.3 billion in annual military aid for decades. And given his influence in the Middle East, where he is a vital player in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his backing Russia with lethal means in this war could have dire consequences.
US Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby evaded discussing the document about the alleged Cairo plans, first leaked in March on the messaging platform Discord, popular with gamers. Kirby noted that Washington has "no indication that Egypt is providing lethal weapons to Russia." And he added that the United States remains an "important security partner" for the United States.
The leak of dozens of documents with US espionage secrets, most related to the conflict in Ukraine and published on Telegram and Twitter, has opened fronts of tension with various partners mentioned in the papers. Among them is also Israel. One of the CIA reports claims that its counterpart in the Jewish nation, the Mossad, encouraged popular protests against the government for its attempt to control justice. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the publication, calling it "lying and unsubstantiated" reporting.
The crisis of the secret papers continues its course.
