Cable says Egypt's Mubarak turned down nukes after Soviet collapse

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

Cairo - A US government cable released by WikiLeaks said an Egyptian ambassador claimed President Hosny Mubarak refused to buy black market nuclear weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union, reports said Monday.

The information was revealed by Egypt's ambassador to the United Nations, Maged Abdelaziz, to the top US nuclear arms control negotiator, Rose Gottemoeller, in May 2009.

"In an apparent attempt to portray Egypt as a responsible member of the international community, Abdelaziz claimed that Egypt had been offered nuclear scientists, materials and even weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union," the cable, attributed to associates of Gottemoeller, said.

"But Egypt had refused all such offers," the cable said.

It was unclear from the cable who had allegedly made the offer to Egypt. The cable said Gottemoeller asked Abdelaziz how he knew of it, to which he replied that "he was in Moscow at that time and had direct personal knowledge."

Egypt's official stance seeks a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, with Cairo criticizing both Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal and Iran's nuclear program.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358977,turned-nukes-soviet-collapse.html.