News Analysis: Egypt ends dependency on U.S. weaponry after recent arms deals

Egypt's recent multibillion-dollar arms deals with France and Russia indicate that the Middle East's military power is willingly to end decades of dependency on the U.S.-made arms, an Egyptian expert said.

"Such deals should have been conducted long years ago," retired army general Adel al-Qalla told Xinhua. "The army has always asked to reduce dependency on U.S. arms and diversify sources of armament."

On Monday, Egypt signed a 5.2 billion-euro contract with France to buy 24 Rafale fighter jets and a naval multifunctional warship.

Under the deal, which was first planned in November last year, France will supply Egypt with 24 twin-engine delta-wing multi-role Rafale fighter jets, a FREMM frigate and short and medium range MBDA missiles.

Last September, Egypt and Russia reached an initial arms deal worth 3.5 billion U.S. dollars through which Egypt will get high-tech air-defense systems.

During his visit to Egypt last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on a deal to build a nuclear plant in Egypt to overcome the country's power shortage.

The military expert believes that the arms deals, mainly the Rafale purchase, delivered heavy blows to the U.S. which has sore ties with the new Egyptian regime after the removal of Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

The U.S. has been controlling the Egyptian political will for decades because it was almost the sole arms supplier for the Egyptian armed forces, al-Qalla said, "but this strategy has totally changed after Egypt regained its political decision following two popular uprisings that topped two pro-U.S. regimes in the past four years."

As a strategic ally of Egypt, the U.S. has been annually supplying Egypt with some 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in aid each year, including 1.3 billion in military assistance.

Morsi's removal and the government crackdown on his supporters led the U.S. to partially freeze its aid to Cairo in October 2013 and demand that Egypt implement democratic reforms.

But the ban was removed when the U.S. delivered 10 Apache choppers to Egypt months after the freezing decision for "counter-terrorism" efforts in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula where Islamist terrorists hold sway.

However, the U.S. downplayed the Egyptian-French Rafale deal saying that such an agreement is not a cause of worry.

"Egypt is a sovereign country. They have maintained relationships with other countries, as does the United States. We have our own security relationship, so I wouldn't say there's a concern from this end," State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during a daily press briefing last week.

"The U.S. is really worried," al-Qalla stressed, "it is not an easy thing that the largest and strongest country in the region becomes politically independent after long years of full submission to the U.S. policies. "

The retired general noted Egypt has the right to reshape its army and strengthen its military and defensive capabilities in order to shift the balance of power which now favors Israel, Egypt's neighbor, with whom the Arab country has a peace agreement but still see each other as bitter foes.

Al-Qalla indicated that the U.S. is the main arm supplier for both countries, but it has always worked to keep the military balance in Israel's favor.

The expert also said that the new deals will empower Egypt in its war against internal and regional terrorism that has claimed the lives of hundreds of the Egyptians in the past three years.

The Rafale deal came a few hours after the Egyptian air forces conducted air strikes on Islamic State targets in Libya in revenge to the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in the neighboring country Sunday.

Meanwhile, al-Qalla stressed that Egypt should focus more on Russia and other countries as military, economic and political partners "because those countries are friendly and have no ambitions in the region."

Egypt was one of Russia's closest allies for two decades, starting from the 1950s.

But ties between the two countries froze in the 1970s when former president Anwar al-Sadat shifted Egypt's foreign policy and military alignment towards the U.S. soon after the 1973 Egyptian war with Israel and the signing of a peace treaty in 1979.

"Today's Egypt is different from it of the past three decades... the U.S. has to know the difference between friendship and sovereignty," al-Qalla said. Endit