Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi secretly commanded his government to send rockets, artillery and gunpowder to Russia, saying in a meeting that the shipments should be discreet in order “to avoid problems with the West,” according to a leaked document first obtained by the Washington Post.
The revelation drew immediate backlash from Washington, which has supplied Cairo with an average of nearly $2 billion in annual aid for the past 45 years. “If it’s true that Sisi is covertly building rockets for Russia that could be used in Ukraine, we need to have a serious reckoning about the state of our relationship,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told the Washington Post.