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Kaieteur News
Friday February 14, 2014
Putin backs Sisi’s ‘run’ for Egyptian presidency Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday endorsed Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah alSisi’s undeclared bid to head the strife-torn North African nation as the two leaders negotiated a massive Moscow weapons deal. Sisi came to Moscow with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy for talks aimed at securing Russian assistance — stagnant since the late Soviet era — that could replace subsiding support from Cairo’s more recent ally Washington. Putin told Sisi that he fully backed Egypt’s new constitution and crucially made no mention of Cairo’s crackdown on protests or the army-backed overthrow in July of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. “I know that you, mister defence minister, have decided to run for president of Egypt,” Putin told Sisi in televised remarks. “I wish you luck both from myself personally and from the Russian people.” The 59-year-old Egyptian field marshal has not officially declared his presidential ambitions but is overwhelmingly expected to run in elections likely to be held before the end of April. A Kuwaiti newspaper had quoted Sisi as saying last week that he felt obliged “to meet the demands of the
Egyptian people” and run for head of state. The army later denied the report. Sisi and Fahmy had earlier on Thursday met their Russian counterparts to negotiate a $2-billion arms deal the two sides initially discussed in Cairo in November — a month after Washington suspended millions of dollars in assistance to the Egyptian army over Mursi’s ouster. “Our visit offers a new start to the development of military and technological cooperation between Egypt and Russia,” Sisi told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. “We hope to speed up this cooperation,” Sisi said. Top officials revealed no details at yesterday’s military discussions while signalling that both sides were interested in the speedy conclusion of a deal. “It was decided to accelerate preparations on an intergovernmental agreement on military and technological cooperation,” a joint statement released by the Russian foreign ministry after the talks said. The head of Russia’s state industrial holding company had said after the Cairo meeting that Moscow was on the verge of reaching a landmark agreement to deliver air defence systems to
Egypt’s army. Rostec chief Sergei Chemezov said on November 18 that “some contracts (with Egypt) have already been signed — particularly one concerning air defence systems.” But he later clarified that he was referring only to a framework deal and not to firm delivery contracts. Moscow’s authoritative Vedomosti business daily on November 15 said the deals under discussion were worth more than $2 billion and could be financed by Saudi Arabia. Some Gulf media have reported that the United Arab Emirates — a strong Egyptian backer since Mursi’s fall — was also ready to fund a part of the purchase. The Soviet Union was the main supplier of arms to Egypt in the 1960s and early 1970s. Cooperation between the two sides dropped after Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty and Cairo began receiving generous US aid. Russia is now keen to revive those ties and Shoigu made clear yesterday that Moscow fully supported the tough measures taken by Sisi against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement. “We cannot but celebrate the adoption of the new Egyptian constitution,” the Russian defence minister told Sisi.
Al Shabaab car bomb hits U.N. convoy, killing seven Somalis MOGADISHU (Reuters) At least seven Somalis were killed when a remotecontrolled bomb aimed at a United Nations convoy tore through cars and tea shops just outside the capital’s international airport yesterday. Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which damaged one U.N. vehicle. A U.N. official said none of its staff were hurt. Four men who were part of a private security escort for the U.N. convoy suffered minor injuries, the official said. The Twitter account of the U.N. in Somalia said the four were Somali nationals. The strike, one of several in recent weeks, was a further reminder of the threat still posed by the rebels after African peacekeepers pushed them out of the capital to the south of the country in 2011. Somalia’s fragile government is struggling to impose any sense of order
more than two decades after the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre tipped the country into chaos. “A car laden with explosives was remotely exploded in front of a tea shop just outside the airport,” senior police official Colonel Abdikadir Ahmed said. Apart from the seven people killed, at least 15 were wounded, Ahmed said. It was not clear if that included the Somalis escorting the U.N. convoy. Smoke blanketed the area and charred human remains could be seen near a burnt car, a Reuters photographer said. Ambulances carried away the dead and injured. Al Shabaab said the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber, and that “three U.N. white men” - a reference to foreigners - were killed in the blast along with 13 Somali soldiers guarding the officials. Mogadishu’s heavilyguarded airport, which is often compared to the Green
Zone in Baghdad, has several safety perimeter fences and checkpoints, and houses the newly-built British embassy along with a large U.N. compound. Many diplomats live in Nairobi as it is not safe to stay in Mogadishu, and when they visit Somalia do not venture outside the airport. Gunmen used a car bomb to blow a hole in the U.N. compound’s wall nearby last year and the ensuing firefight killed 22 people, including U.N. staff. One Western diplomat said the nature of the attack showed security remained a major problem in the capital, where al Shabaab the previous night fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace. “It shows (al Shabaab) can strike at will, including right in front of the airport,” the diplomat said of the car bomb. “We expect more attacks.”