Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — The United States has been supplying major combat platforms
to Egypt in wake of the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that Egypt
received scores of armored platforms from the United States in 2011. In a
report, the institute cited the delivery of the M1A1 main battle tank to the Egyptian
Army.

“In 2011 Egypt received 45 M1A1 tanks from the USA and ordered 125 more,” the report, titled “Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2011,” said.

SIPRI said the revolts in Egypt and other Middle East states did not
seem to affect U.S. military exports to the region. In his last days of
power, Mubarak is said to have employed the M1A1 as well as the F-16 multi-role fighter to intimidate civilian protesters.

“During 2011, the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria used imported weapons in the suppression of peaceful demonstrations among other alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law,” the report, released on March 19, said. “The transfer of arms to states affected by the Arab Spring has provoked public and parliamentary debate in a number of supplier states. However, the impact on
states’ arms export policies has been mixed.”

The U.S. Congress has sought to block arms exports to Egypt in wake of
the arrest of Americans who work for pro-democracy non-governmental
organizations. But in March the administration of President Barack Obama
planned to exercise a waiver of a certification to Congress that would have
halted U.S. military aid to Egypt for 2012.

“Egypt, by far the largest arms importer of the five countries,
continued to receive and order major arms, in particular from the USA,” the
report said.

  Arab Spring, Barack Obama, Egyptian Army, Hosni Mubarak, M1A1 main battle tank, Report: U.S. supplied M1A1 tanks to Egypt throughout 2011’s ‘Arab Spring’, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute