Egyptian Military Source: Army Won’t be Used in War against Brotherly Country

CAIRO- “The capabilities and potentials of the Egyptian army are employed only to protect Egypt and its national security,” an Egyptian military source said yesterday adding that the army won’t be used in any war against a brotherly country, in a clear reference to Syria.

According to the state-run MENA news agency, the source said the Egyptian army would not interfere in the domestic affairs of any foreign or Arab country.

“The Egyptian army won’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and won’t be dragged into regional struggles,” the source was quoted as saying.

In a statement to the Egyptian “al-Masri al-Youm” newspaper website, the source affirmed that the Egyptian armed forces won’t send any of their units to support the Syrian opposition and that they completely reject launching any military action against the Syrian Arab army.

 The remarks were made a day after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi adopted aggressive stances against Syria, announced the severance of diplomatic ties with the country and stressed his support for what he described as “jihad” in Syria.

The remarks encourage more influx of terrorists ad mercenaries into Syria to fight along with armed terrorist groups under the pretext of so-called “jihad”.

Morsi’s stances were received by popular outrage in Egypt since they don’t express the will of the Egyptian people.

The “Simon Bolivar” Square, near the American embassy in Cairo witnessed a big demonstration by a number of Nasserit movements protesting Morsi’s decision to sever Egypt’s ties with Syria. They stressed that by doing this Morsi has unmasked his conspiring role serving the American schemes in Syria.

Meanwhile, Egyptian political, religious and media personalities condemned Morsi’s anti-Syria speech which supports the Zionist and US backed terrorism in Syria. They described the Egyptian President’s speech as a “kiss of life” to the terrorist groups which are suffering a humiliating defeat thanks to the Syrian Arab Army’s victories and the strong cohesion between the Syrian people and their leadership.

Egyptian Political analysts also stressed that through his aggressive statements against Syria, Morsi was trying to escape his internal political crisis and to ignore the demonstrations and public upset of the Egyptian people because of his subservient policies.

“The current Egyptian regime is facing an internal political crisis which  has controlled Morsi’s decisions towards Syria”, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Orabi told AFP, stressing that this regime tries to distract attention away from the internal crisis through focusing on foreign policies.

For his part Egyptian MP Amin Iskandar described Morsi’s decision to sever ties with Syria as miserable. He pointed out that Morsi had come to power after an American-Turkish-Qatari collusion, and he doesn’t feel how much important and deeply-rooted the relations between the brotherly peoples of Syria and Egypt are.     

H. Mustafa