Egypt receives 3 Rafale fighter jets from France

The Egyptian Armed Forces received three Rafale fighter jets from France as the first batch of a deal signed between the two countries in February, the Egyptian military spokesman said on Monday.

"The deal includes handing Egypt 24 Rafale warplanes and a FREMM multi-mission frigate," Military spokesman, Brigadier-General Mohamed Samir, said in the statement.

He noted that Egypt's Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi received earlier this month the FREMM multi-mission frigate in a ceremony held at Isters air base southern France, the same base where the three Rafale jets have been delivered.

Egypt seeks to develop its military capabilities amid ongoing chaos in the Middle East region and the growing conflicts hitting fellow Arab states including Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan.

The Rafale deal signed between Egypt and France in mid-February is worth 5.6 billion U.S. dollars as each Rafale jet is sold at 90 million U.S. dollars.

"The Rafale deal is materialization of the strong relations and mutual trust between Egypt and France and the political will that allowed to complete negotiations on the deal in record time," Egypt's ambassador to Paris Ehab Badawi said in a statement Monday. Enditem