EgyWatch – June 10, 2019
Al-Akhbar Lebanese newspaper said that it has documents the Egyptian General Intelligence Service sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Media specifying the directives and warnings concerning the foreign files of seven Arab countries. The seven countries are Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Qatar and Turkey.
Sudan was among the priority countries of the foreign strategy set by the General Intelligence to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Media. Regarding Sudan, the document stated: “a commitment to neutrality and professionalism and not to offend any Sudanese parties, with the possibility of gradually and carefully hosting Sudanese personalities from various political forces on Egyptian media platforms,” which supports the Egyptian approach to hosting a forum for dialogue for Sudanese political forces, “and the current alert to not address controversial issues, especially regarding the region of Halaib and Shalatin, while avoiding media coverage of any efforts or visits of Egyptian officials to Sudan during the current phase Current.”
In the Yemeni file, the strategy of the General Intelligence affirmed Egypt’s support for international efforts to resolve the Yemeni crisis politically and to support the understandings from the Swedish consultations. Moreover, the recommendation to talk about “preserving the unity of north and south Yemen as an integral part of Arab national security.”
As for Syria, the intelligence strategy sent to the Foreign Ministry stressed “the importance of highlighting Egyptian efforts and moves with the various regional and international parties to resolve the crisis politically, based on the Geneva outcomes and the relevant UN resolutions, as well as supporting current UN efforts to form a committee to prepare a new constitution for the country.”
In the Turkish dossier, the strategy regarding Ankara was to “highlight the state’s direction towards Islamisation under the rule of Erdogan, despite the secularism of the state and the constitution; promotion of the Turkish president’s ambitions regarding the region and his desire to revive the Ottoman state… This is part of showing Turkey’s support for terrorism, but avoiding going into any statements of Erdogan about the Egyptian political leadership or involving Egyptian officials in that.”
Regarding Libya, the strategy emphasised that “military operations of the Libyan national army (the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar) in the western region comes within the framework of efforts combating terrorism and establishing the political process.”
