Defense Minister
Lobbyist says Myanmar junta wants to improve relations with the West, spurn China
An Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired by Myanmar’s junta said on Saturday that the generals are keen to leave politics after their coup and seek to improve relations with the United States and distance themselves from China. Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence official who has previously represented Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s military rulers, said Myanmar’s generals also want to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighboring Bangladesh. The United Nations says more than 50 demonstrators have been killed since the Feb. 1 coup when the military overthrew and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won polls in November by a landslide. On Friday, a U.N. special envoy urged the Security Council to take action against t...
Egypt’s army ‘rational’ among strongest in region – president
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday that the Egyptian army is one of strongest in the region but it is “a rational army,” the Egyptian presidency said. Sisi’s remarks came during his inspection visit to the air forces combat units in the Western Military Zone, accompanied by the defense minister and the chief of staff, said Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady in a statement. The Egyptian president said that the Egyptian army “protects rather than threatens,” stressing that it is able to protect the country’s national security inside and outside the Egyptian borders, according to the statement. Egypt‘s Western Military Zone includes the borders with neighboring war-torn Libya, which has been mired in a civil war since late 2014. Get more stories like this on Twi...
