CIA report angers Egypt, state daily attacks Clinton

Tuesday, August 15, 2000

CAIRO -- The government media here expressed anger at the latest sore point in U.S. relations -- a CIA report which links Egypt with North Korea and ballistic missile development.

One commentator for the state newspaper Al Ahram denied the report and added: "Compared to previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton administration has proved itself to be the least capable of understanding Arab psychology."

The U.S. accusations of Egyptian-North Korean cooperation is the latest element of friction between Cairo and Washington. U.S. officials are said to be unhappy with Egypt's refusal to persuade Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to compromise on his demand for sovereignty throughout eastern Jerusalem and the arrest of a leading Egyptian human rights activist.

Egyptian diplomatic sources took offense at the latest CIA national intelligence estimate, Middle East Newsline reported. The estatimate lists Cairo along with five other Arab countries as developing ballistic missiles in cooperation with North Korea.

Unlike neighboring Libya, the regime of President Hosni Mubarak has not denied the CIA report, which has been relayed to Congress. Instead, Egyptian sources said Cairo requires a strategic policy of military deterrence in the Middle East that must take into account Israel's nuclear and missile arsenal.

The sources said Israel was not highlighted in the report as having the largest arsenal of strategic weapons in the Middle East. They expressed concern that members of Congress might launch a campaign to pressure Egypt to end its missile cooperation with North Korea.

Egypt's government media have raised these concerns as well. 'These claims [of Egyptian-North Korean missile cooperation] are completely untrue and lack any proof and that their aim is to discredit the Egyptian role in the Middle East," writes Mohammad Abdel Salam in the Egyptian Al Ahram daily. "Egyptian officials have described the relations of military cooperation with North Korea as normal and just like the relations with other countries."

The newspaper quoted the CIA report as saying that Syria has obtained during the second half of 1999 components and technology to produce Sarin nerve gas. Damascus is also trying to obtain what Al Ahram termed as "more devastating chemical weapons with foreign help and produce liquid fuel for missiles with North Korean and Russian help."

Morsi Attallah suggested that such accusations by the United States against Egypt could undermine the Middle East peace process. "Neither the strong are strong forever, nor the weak always weak," Attallah writes in Al Ahram Messa'i daily. "Compared to previous U.S. administrations, the Clinton administration has proved itself to be the least capable of understanding Arab psychology, the least capable of recognizing their unleashed power of defiance when it comes to fate-determining issues. And here lies the danger which jeopardizes not only peace in the region but the vital interests of all concerned."

For its part, Israel has not highlighted Egypt's missile cooperation with North Korea, although privately senior defense officials regard this as a major concern. Instead, military sources have focused on the Syrian and Iranian missile threat.

"Surface to surface missiles pose a threat to the entire region, and the Israel Defense Forces is building itself to provide an answer to this threat as well," Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz said.