Armed Forces ready to confront all challenges facing Egyptian national security: Spox - Defence
Armed Forces Spokesperson Gharib Abdel Hafez asserted that the Armed Forces are ready to confront all challenges facing the Egyptian state.
Abdel Hafez said all armed forces members are highly active to ensure readiness to confront and deal with any threats or challenges.
He made these remarks in a meeting with the Middle East News Agency (MENA) staff, which included MENA Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kamal and members of the editorial board.
Abdel Hafez stressed the importance of supporting the political leadership at this critical juncture as a guarantee of overcoming all challenges facing the Egyptian state.
He asserted the importance of the Egyptian people's awareness of the present challenges.
Meanwhile, he stressed that the Egyptian leadership's political stance on the Palestinian issue has not changed since 1948 and that Egypt has always emphasized the need to establish a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem (Al Quds) as its capital, to ensure regional security and stability.
Furthermore, Abdel Hafez noted that displacing the Palestinian people from their land means liquidating the Palestinian issue while reiterating the complex nature of the challenges the Egyptian state currently faces on all strategic fronts.
The political leadership never took these challenges lightly. Abdel Hafez revealed that the Egyptian state had indeed been vigilant and anticipated the possibility of such scenarios occurring in the aftermath of 2011. Therefore, the armed forces developed their capabilities and armament systems significantly throughout the past decade to prepare for any possible confrontations.
Moreover, the spokesperson recalled how the Armed Forces had been wrongfully and severely criticized over arms deals and the establishment of military bases, stressing that the current threats have proven the correctness of the Armed Forces vision in light of the schemes that were in the offing, especially in the post-2011 period.
The recent developments prove that the current battle is one of existence, he highlighted.
Furthermore, Abdel Hafez pointed out that no state can bear the brunt of Egypt's present challenges, attributing the Egyptian state's resilience to the Armed Forces' development over the past decade.
In addition, the spokesperson noted that the political leadership is deeply aware of the plots being hatched and has, therefore, prepared carefully developed preemptive plans.
He explained that the Armed Forces' strategy is based on developing the combatant individual, armament, and training.
He noted that the Egyptian soldier's creed centres around defending the land to death and that that creed won Egypt the October War.
Similarly, the spokesperson said Egypt has always emerged stronger after every crisis, but what it faces today is unprecedented.
Therefore, the political leadership has diversified the sources of arms so that the armed forces would not depend on a single country for armament, he said.
Furthermore, Abdel Hafez noted that the Egyptian air defence system is one of the most complex globally due to the diversity of its armament sources.
He also highlighted Egypt's unique experience in fighting terrorism and its success in eliminating terrorism and its causes while avoiding disruptions to development plans and projects.
In addition, the spokesperson recalled the challenges Egypt faced following 2011, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, noting that the state overcame these crises by taking the necessary measures.
Abdel Hafez also highlighted the media's impact on Egyptian national security by spreading awareness to unify the Egyptian people against dangers and challenges.
At the end of the meeting, MENA Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Kamal gifted the agency's shield to the military spokesperson in appreciation of his efforts to convey the actual image to the Egyptian, Arab, and international public with utmost transparency.
In return, Abdel Hafez praised the vital role of the Middle East News Agency, the oldest news agency in the Arab and Middle East regions, in conveying the truth and foiling schemes by rumour mongers, thus countering malicious propaganda against Egypt.
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