home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac 1990
/
1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
/
time
/
032089
/
03208900.027
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-09-17
|
1KB
|
21 lines
WORLD, Page 43World NotesEGYPTOdious Transactions
The basic facts were eerily familiar. A North African nation
stood accused of obtaining equipment from a European firm in order
to build a poison-gas plant. Only this time the culprit is not U.S.
antagonist Libya but good friend Egypt.
The New York Times reported last week that the U.S. was
concerned that Egypt was planning to build a gas factory north of
Cairo with materials it bought from Zurich-based Krebs A.G.
The same day the news broke, Krebs announced it had stopped
deliveries to Egypt, following an order issued by the Swiss
government on March 2. Krebs also said it believed the equipment
was intended only for pharmaceutical production. Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak denied that Egypt had any plans to make poison gas.
"This is the first I've heard of it," he said. "We are against
chemical weapons." The U.S. now faces a potential dilemma: how to
stand by its strong opposition to chemical weapons without
alienating a strategic ally.