| inbluevt | Date: Tuesday, 2013/09/17, 11:24 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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CAIRO — Whether a proposed Russian deal to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons as an
alternative to a U.S. missile strike actually works or not, Russia already has emerged as a winner among many Egyptians. For them, the deal is a reminder that there’s a former ally that can solve the region’s problems peacefully without the tarnish of a failed intervention in Iraq, failed Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, reviled alliances with fallen regimes or the perception that it
has treated the region as its lapdog.
Even before the proposed chemical weapons deal, Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, was seeking to build stronger relations with Russia – and move away from the United States. While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested in
his congressional testimony earlier this month that the Arab world is watching what the U.S. does in Syria, it’s what Russia is doing that’s shifting alliances in the region.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy visited Russia this week, in part to thank Russians for their intervention in Syria and to discuss new ways to expand Egyptian-Russian relations. Fahmy said he hoped the Russian deal would eventually lead to ridding the world of chemical and
nuclear “without exception or discrimination,” a clear reference to Israel, the United States’ most important Middle East ally and a country suspected of having both chemical and nuclear weapons.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, welcomes his Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy for talks in Moscow, Russia. Their discussion focused on the change of government in Egypt following a July coup and international efforts to address the civil war in Syria. | Ivan Sekretarev/AP
Message edited by inbluevt - Tuesday, 2013/09/17, 11:28 PM |
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