Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the flow of $320 million to Egypt on Thursday, bypassing human rights restrictions on foreign military aid to reward Cairo for aiding diplomacy in the Iran war.
The funds, part of Washington’s annual $1.3 billion payment to Cairo, give President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi free rein to go shopping for American-made weapons. The State Department claims the move is critical to U.S. national security, praising Sisi’s regime for acting as a middleman in the regional war with Iran.
But while Washington pats Cairo on the back, security analysts and regional experts are concerned that signing off on the funds could backfire in the future. The hundreds of millions of dollars in military funds will flow into Egypt shortly after the country held joint air force exercises with China, America’s biggest adversary.
The China-Egypt joint fighter jet drills took place from August 22 to September 7 and marked the first time China deployed its heavyweight J-16 fighters to Africa.
Another concern surrounding the U.S. approval is that handing hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Egypt ignores a long history of border-smuggling and an unexplained military buildup right on Israel’s doorstep.
For years, Egyptian authorities turned a blind eye to Hamas’ vast network of cross-border smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor. That supply chain poured high-grade weaponry directly into Gaza, setting the stage for the horrific slaughter of October 7, 2023.
The Sinai Peninsula has also been a breeding ground for violent jihadists. After the 2011 Arab Spring, the region was overrun by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an extremist group that eventually pledged allegiance to ISIS as “Wilayat Sinai.” The group bombed a Russian airliner in 2015 that killed 224 people and slaughtered more than 300 worshippers at a Sinai mosque in 2017.
Military experts warn that Sisi’s regime is building an army that looks less like a defensive force and more like a regional juggernaut preparing for a full-scale war.
Despite suffering a crushed economy with skyrocketing inflation, up to a 30% jump in fuel prices, and losing $10 billion in Suez Canal revenues, the Egyptian military has amassed advanced fighter jets, heavy tanks, attack drones, and a Mediterranean navy.
Inside Sinai, former IDF Intelligence officer Lt. Col. Eli Dekel has warned that Egypt has quietly violated peace agreements by deploying tanks right to the border and digging roughly 60 massive underground military bunkers, which could hide strategic offensive weapons from airstrikes.
Meanwhile, state media and military officials in Cairo have dropped open threats toward Israel, airing videos targeting Israeli tanks and boasting about preparing their army for confrontation.
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