PARIS (TASS): The French Ministry of Armed Forces has launched an internal audit following the publication of an article by the publication Disclose about the secret operation of the French intelligence services in Egypt. This was stated on Wednesday by the official representative of the French government Gabriel Attal at a briefing following the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers.
“The Secretary of the Armed Forces [Florence Parley] has announced an in-depth investigation into the information released by the Disclose. The investigation goes along two lines. First, the fact that classified documents appear in the media is a serious violation of military secrecy and jeopardizes conducting intelligence operations designed to enhance the security of our citizens. This will be legally assessed. Secondly, the investigation must ensure that the rules defined for this [Franco-Egyptian] cooperation and the measures for their implementation have been effectively implemented. ” he said.
Attal assured that “Egypt is a partner of France” and Paris has intensified its cooperation with Cairo in the field of intelligence in recent years due to the increased activity of terrorist groups in Libya. “As part of our anti-terrorist cooperation, we operate with intelligence. The rules for using this data meet the strictest requirements, which clearly define the mission. These rules are known to our partners, they are regularly reminded of them,” added a spokesman for the French government.
On Monday, the online publication Disclose published an article about the secret military operation “Searly”, which the Egyptian armed forces have been conducting on their territory in cooperation with France since 2016.
According to him, the a-uthorities of this North A-frican country used the data of French intelligence to attack targets at the border, in particular on the cars of suspected traffickers. Rep-orters claim that “hundreds of civilians” have been in-jured or killed as a result of the actions of the Egyptian armed forces, as well as the French military, who allegedly participated in the 19 strikes between 2016 and 2018. It is also stated that “French troops are still in the Egyptian desert.”
The publication publis-hed a secret report from the Office of Military Intellig-ence to the President of Fr-ance, in which the intellig-ence services warn of the need for additional checks before striking targets identified from the air. A 2019 note to the head of the Fr-ench Ministry of the Armed Forces, Parley, ahead of her visit to Egypt, also asked her Egyptian partners to remind her Egyptian partners that the data provided by French reconnaissance aircraft was not intended to correct airstrikes.
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