US State Department nods to $5bn in potential arms sales to Egypt | Military Affairs

The sale is likely to take place despite ongoing concerns about the government’s human rights violations.

The US State Department has approved a potential arms sale of more than $5bn to Egypt.

The State Department notified Congress on Friday that it had approved a $4.69bn sale of 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks to Egypt, as well as $630m in Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and -$30 million in direct investment. weapons.

In a statement released that day, it said the sale would support US “foreign policy and national security” by helping to improve the security of the non-NATO “headquarters” that served as a key strategic partner in the Middle East.

Egypt and the US have worked very closely since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023, with Cairo involved in negotiating an end to the war.

The deals come despite ongoing concerns in Washington about the Egyptian government’s poor human rights record under President Adel Fattah el-Sisi.

Rights group Amnesty estimates that Egypt currently holds around 60,000 political prisoners, including British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who was arrested for “spreading false news” after sharing a post on Facebook about alleged police brutality.

Egypt has pardoned hundreds of political prisoners in the past two years. But rights groups say at least three times that many were arrested at the same time.

A major recipient of US aid

US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 promising to confront Egypt over human rights concerns, but his administration has approved several arms deals.

In 2022, his administration approved the sale of 12 Super Hercules C-130 transport aircraft and air defense radar systems to Egypt worth an estimated $2.5bn.

The State Department’s notification of the latest potential sale to Congress did not indicate that a contract had been signed or that negotiations had ended.

The proposed sale “will not change the basic military balance in the region”, the statement said, adding that transactions related to Abrams tanks would take ten years to be implemented.

The US Congress can still block sales, but such efforts are often unsuccessful.

Cairo has been one of the largest recipients of US security assistance since its 1979 peace treaty with Israel. The biggest recipient is Israel.