EGYPT ACCEPTS REQUEST TO REPLACE INFANTRY WITH

UNCLAS CAIRO 001213 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR IO/PSC, NEA/ELA, AF/SPG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KPKO UNSC EG SU SUBJECT: EGYPT ACCEPTS REQUEST TO REPLACE INFANTRY WITH ENGINEERS IN UNAMID REF: A. CAIRO 1086 ¶B. SECSTATE 55232 Sensitive but unclassified, not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (SBU) MFA Counselor for UN Affairs Yasser Naggar told us on June 12 that, later that same day, the MFA would instruct its delegation in New York to accept the UN DPKO's request to replace one of four companies in Egypt's second infantry battalion for the UN/AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) with an engineering company. The engineering company would deploy with the three infantry companies for one year, he said, after which it would be replaced by the previously scheduled fourth infantry company. Naggar explained that the GOE had already responded to the UN that it was unwilling to temporarily transfer engineers to UNAMID from Egypt's UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) contingent (reftels) due to its commitments to other African nations against "cross borrowing" from active peacekeeping missions. Subsequently, the UN requested that Egypt instead replace a number of the infantry troops planned for Egypt's second of two infantry battalions with engineers, which the Egyptian MOD had originally opposed. The MOD eventually reversed its decision and approved this plan, Naggar said. ¶2. (SBU) Naggar launched into a tirade on the GOE's frustration with the UN DPKO over UNAMID, saying "they had no plan and still have no plan" to ensure effective deployment of more than 30,000 troops. He complained that "they constantly changed their minds" on where the Egyptian contingent was to deploy, and that the UN had not adequately secured Egyptian military equipment sent to Darfur. Reading from notes of an MFA-MOD meeting, he said that military equipment sent from Cairo had been left unsecured in a storage location near Port Sudan and had subsequently been damaged (NFI). Naggar also registered frustration that, with the departure from post of an Egyptian Deputy Head of Sector, Egypt - a large contributor to UNAMID - no longer had any high-ranking officials in the UNAMID command structure. ¶3. (SBU) Naggar also complained that it was not proper for the UN to ask governments - particularly the U.S. and U.K. - to demarche Egypt on its behalf. Separately on June 12, UK poloff Martin Hetherington told us that Naggar had made the same points to him in a meeting to discuss Egypt's engineering contribution the previous day, and had been even more vehement in his criticism of the UN DPKO. SCOBEY