Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi instructed that 40,000 rockets should be made and secretly shipped to Russia, The Washington Post reported on Monday night, citing the leaked Pentagon documents.
According to the report, Sisi told Egyptian military officials to keep the rockets a secret so as to avoid problems with the West.
“Egypt’s position from the beginning is based on noninvolvement in this crisis and committing to maintain equal distance with both sides, while affirming Egypt’s support to the UN charter and international law in the UN General Assembly resolutions,” Egypt's Foreign Ministry's spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid told The Washington Post in response. “We continue to urge both parties to cease hostilities and reach a political solution through negotiations,” he said.
Egypt's votes in the UN regarding the Russia-Ukraine war have been either neutral or in support of the end of the war. The country abstained from a UNGA vote last April to suspend Russia from the UNGA but voted in favor of a vote demanding the end of the war.
As Egypt is an ally of the US in the Middle East, the supplying of rockets to Russia would be seen as a problem if true.
“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," Senator Chris Murphy told The Washington Post.
What happened in the leak?
The document was one of many classified items to have been leaked from the Pentagon. The documents covered a variety of subjects and were published on multiple social media platforms including as Twitter, Telegram and Discord.
The documents revealed information on the Ukraine-Russia war, as well as issues relating to the US and various allies such as Israel, South Korea and the UK.