A recent secret meeting between the head of Egyptian intelligence and a senior Iranian spy offers new evidence of Cairo’s Muslim Brotherhood government having joined the “axis of evil.”
Murad Muwafi, head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, met in early August with a senior official of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, investigative journalist Bill Gertz wrote in the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday night.
He noted that the Obama administration continues to maintain close ties with Egypt, its major ally in the Middle East after Israel, and plans to offer the new government an additional $1 billion in aid.
Muwafi met with an Iranian spy was identified only by his last name, Gerami, setting off security concerns “because the Iranian spy service is a key player in Tehran’s international support for terrorism, as well as anti-U.S. and anti-Israel operations,” Gertz wrote.
Coincidentally or not, Muwafi was sacked from his position shortly afterwards, either because of the meeting or possibly bookcase of Egypt’s failure to heed advance warnings of the August 5 terrorist attack that killed 16 Egyptian security personnel and which almost succeeded in crossing into Israel. The terrorists were eliminated before they could carry out plans to kill Israelis.
Asked about the Egyptian-Iranian intelligence meeting, a U.S. official told the Free Beacon, “The Egyptians are still skeptical of Iranian motives. There’s a lot of baggage to overcome with Tehran, so for now any efforts to expand outreach and build a new relationship are likely to be cautious and fairly limited.”
Nevertheless, the seeds of a Cairo’s actively joining the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah-axis have been planted.
Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi recently visited Iran and officially broker a 30 year-freeze in ties between the two countries. He denied Cairo was officially opening an embassy in Tehran, which openly welcomed the visit.
The formerly outlawed Muslim Brotherhood party won a plurality of seats in the legislature and formed a coalition with an even more radical party of Salafists. They are in a role-reversal situation, after having railed against Israel and the United States in the election campaign and now walking a tightrope to maintain Washington’s support without angering opposite elements as well as their own followers who want a break in relations with Israel and dependence on American aid.
Thousands of protesters Monday night stomped the U.S. embassy in Cairo and tore down the American flag in a protest against an American film that they said insults Islam.
The Muslim Brotherhood government has freed hundreds of radical fundamentalists who preach against Israel and the West and promote jihad.