"Le Point" French magazine said that Egypt is accumulating debt due to its pursuit of the most powerful army in the region, which is still a long way off, despite its purchase of 30 Rafale aircraft from the French "Dassault" company for nearly 4 Billions of euros.
And in a joint report by
Ariane Lavrio in Cairo and Greec Ponce;
The magazine said that the renewal of the relationship with Egypt was the mantra of the Elysee, afraid of losing the main customer of the French arms industry between 2014 and 2018, and turning to Italian, Russian or German competitors, noting that negotiations have been taking place in parallel for nearly two years, in order to sell helicopters and satellites. Industrial and combat aircraft, for the Dassault Company to finally win the sale of 30 Rafale aircraft in addition to the 24 aircraft it sold in 2015, in a contract worth 3.75 billion euros, in addition to 200 million euros in weapons.
It is assumed - as the report says - that the deliveries will start for this contract, which will enter into force in June or July 2021, three and a half years from now, over a period extending from 2024 to 2026.
The French Ministry of the Armed Forces confirmed that this contract will not have any impact on the schedule of delivery of about 40 new aircraft by 2025 to the Air and Space Forces, and it does not mean the transfer of technology to Egypt.
No Meteor missiles
All new aircraft, according to the report, will be delivered to Egypt from the "F3-R" (F3-R), which is the most advanced in service currently, but will soon be replaced by "F4" in France in 2024 or 2025, and thus Egypt will not have the most advanced model, and its planes at the beginning will not be equipped with the Meteor air-to-air missile, which is a crucial component of the "F3-R", with a range of more than 150 km, which enables it to destroy most of the enemy aircraft in The service was in the Middle East and Africa before it was within the range of firing range, with the exception of the F-35 (F-35) that Israel was equipped with.
The magazine's report indicated that the entry of the Meteor missile into Egypt would have sent a strong message to its neighbors, but if we assumed that the French government wanted to export this weapon, it would need great efforts to obtain the green light so from the United States, which could - through its own export regulations. Weapons - Preventing any deal that includes an American element, and this is the case of Meteor, as well as the Scalp missile, the primary in arming the Rafale, because it enables it to hit ground targets in an accurate and effective manner, from a safe distance.
Egypt is far from dominating
The magazine mentioned that the new Rafale contract is part of the ongoing military cooperation between France and Egypt, which in recent years has bought an amphibious helicopter carrier Mistral, a multi-role frigate, 4 Gowind corvettes and 24 Rafale, to which the 30 will be added. Its request is in 2021, which means that Egypt is currently one of France's most important partners on the global level.
A Rafale plane during the opening of the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport near Paris in June 2013 (Reuters)
Thus, Egypt seeks - as a writer specializing in the defense review site in Egypt who requested anonymity - to appear as the main armed force in the region, especially with air power, but it is still far from being able to compete with the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, not to mention with its neighbor Israel, because These countries have unified fleets, unlike Egypt.
Debt troublesome
The magazine asked how Egypt will pay these four billions?
The Egyptian army spokesman said that the contract will be funded by a 10-year loan, and information indicates that 85% of this amount was loaned by a group of French banks with the guarantee of the French state.
The report stated that Egypt's debt has increased dramatically since the army's return to power in 2013, especially with international institutions, as it was loaned $ 12 billion by the International Monetary Fund, and $ 5.2 billion was just added to it to offset the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the accumulation of debts, the question arises about the extent to which Egypt is able to repay its debts to France, especially as it is still repaying the loan contracted in 2015 to buy the first 24 rafles, but the office of the minister who led the negotiations confirms the credibility of the Egyptian client who has always been meticulous in paying his dues until now. According to the magazine.
Support the UAE
On the other hand - the magazine believes - that Egypt can count on its almost constant ally and donor the Emirates, which supported Cairo in the aftermath of the 2013 military coup, by depositing several billion in the vaults of the Central Bank of Egypt.
She pointed out that two days before the signing of the new Rafale contract, the Crown Prince of the Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, was visiting Cairo, and a businessman close to the Egyptian authorities said that Egypt had received a payment from the Emirates, not as important as the payment in 2015, but several hundreds of millions of euros, but it is Sufficient to pay the first deposit that allows the contract to officially enter into force.
Le Point's report warned that Egypt, which is paying well, is one of France's most criticized partners with regard to human rights, as the non-governmental organization "Human Rights Watch" denounced - a few months ago - what it considered "potential war crimes" in the north. Sinai, after the army destroyed more than 12,000 homes under the pretext of fighting terrorism, so that France itself - along with 30 other countries - expressed its "deep concern" about human rights violations and called for an end to the persecution of Egyptian activists and journalists.