Guest Post by Dr. Mark Christian
Executive Director Global Faith Institute
Russian Naval Base in Egypt?
What does Cairo know about President Obama that the United States doesn’t?
The Egyptian government has made clear that they have ‘the goods’ on President Obama and his administration, and are none too happy about the administration’s support of the Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. The current Egyptian government has told the press that they had wiretapped all communications made by ex-president (and Muslim Brotherhood strongman) Morsi during his year as president.
What revelations will they expose? U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, visited Cairo last week just hours before Morsi’s trial was to begin. Can we assume he was there to advocate for Morsi? We do know that after Kerry’s departure the interim Egyptian President authorized a statement that essentially said, “Americans can’t be trusted, and we’re now going to work with Russia instead.”
Since then, Egypt has sent an official delegation to Russia to prepare for the Russian Defense Minister’s upcoming trip to Egypt. This trip is a prelude to Russian President Putin’s trip to Egypt, an event that hasn’t occurred in decades. The last time Egypt and Russia had such a ‘feel good’ relationship was during the glory days of the Cold War, an era that both states seem to want to rekindle.
Russia has committed to giving Egypt 4 billion dollars’ in weapons while Egypt has apparently volunteered to allow Russia to place a naval base somewhere along Egypt’s shores.
Has United States diplomacy ever failed so miserably, in such a short amount of time? What does a ‘Russian’ Egypt mean for the Middle East and the American presence there? Only time will tell…
