The US administration has concluded that despite Egypt's cooperation with North Korea, the Arab country has remained within what officials describe as acceptable limits on missile development, according to Middle East Newsline (MENL).
Administration officials were quoted as saying they have determined that their concerns have been assuaged by Egypt's replies on questions concerning missile cooperation with North Korea. The officials said they have received assurances from Cairo that Egypt is not developing a variant of a No-Dong intermediate-range missile.
The news service cited State Department officials as telling reporters that Washington has determined that Egypt continues to cooperate with North Korea on missile development. But the cooperation is largely regarding the short- and medium-range Scud class of missiles. They said this does not constitute a short-term threat to Israel or the Middle East and that the missile programs are within "acceptable limits." They did not elaborate.
An unnamed senior State Department official had told Reuters of the new development of the dispute.
"We have had some discussions with the Egyptians about their missile program in order to satisfy ourselves that they were not going into areas that we felt were inappropriate," the official said on Tuesday.
"We're satisfied with what they told us but this is a subject we'll continue to keep under close observation and discussion," he added.
It was reported earlier this week that the US administration is planning to establish a new mechanism to better coordinate US arms sales to Egypt and to more efficiently monitor Egyptian acquisitions of advanced weapons technology.
But the US official declined to comment on the report, according to Reuters.
A senior administration official had told the Jerusalem Post that the move followed a dispute between the US and Egypt over the latter's efforts, according to the CIA and others, to develop and produce ballistic missiles with North Korea's help.
Egypt has denied that such a program exists, though the issue is repeatedly raised in meetings between senior US and Egyptian officials and has become a sore point in the allies' bilateral relationship, said the official.
In July, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied US intelligence reports that his country aimed to produce intermediate-range missiles – Albawaba.com
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