Summary: Non-signatory Egypt has expressed its support for efforts to protect civilians from cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. It objects to key provisions of the convention and the process that created it. In December 2015, Egypt abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution on the convention. It has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in 2013. Egypt is a producer, importer, exporter, and possesses stockpiles of cluster munitions. Evidence indicates that Egypt exported or otherwise transferred cluster munition rockets to Syria in the past. Egypt states that it has not used cluster munitions.

Policy

The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Egypt has expressed its support for efforts to protect civilians from cluster munitions, but sees military utility in the weapons. It also objects to key provisions of the convention and the fast-track process that created it.[1]

On 7 December 2015, Egypt abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munition, which urges states outside the convention on “to join as soon as possible.”[2] Egypt did not explain its reasons for abstaining from the vote on the non-binding resolution, which 140 states voted for, including many non-signatories. It said it was abstaining from voting for similar resolutions on the Mine Ban Treaty and Arms Trade Treaty, partly due to the way in which those treaties were negotiated and to a host of criticisms of their provisions.

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement upon the entry-into-force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2010 expressing hope that its concerns with the text could be addressed at the convention’s First Review Conference.[3] Egypt was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015.

Egypt participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and engaged in the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer but did not attend the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[4] Despite participating in the process, Egypt expressed concern in October 2008 with both the “substantive content” of the convention and “the process which led to its conclusion outside the framework of the United Nations.”[5]

Egypt participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in 2011 as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2013. Egypt has voted in favor of several UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[6]

Egypt is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons in 1981, but has never ratified.

Use

During the Oslo Process, Egypt stated that it has never used cluster munitions.[7]

Egypt is participating in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states against Houthi forces (Ansar Allah) in Yemen that began on 25 March 2015, in a conflict that was continuing as of 20 June 2016.[8] US-supplied cluster munitions have been used in attacks by coalition forces, but the state or states responsible for the use is unclear. Egypt has not commented on an August 2015 report by Human Rights Watch condemning the Saudi-led coalition’s use of M26-series cluster munition rockets in Yemen’s northern Hajjah province.[9] Egypt and coalition member Bahrain possess M26 cluster munition rockets and their launchers, while there is no authoritative publicly available information that Saudi Arabia or Yemen have them.

Egypt has not commented publically or responded to a Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) letter calling on it to refrain from using cluster munitions in the Yemen operation.[10]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Egypt is a producer, importer, exporter, and possesses stockpiles of cluster munitions.

Two state-owned Egyptian companies have produced ground-launched cluster munitions.

SAKR Factory for Developed Industries has produced two types of 122mm surface-to-surface rockets: the SAKR-18 and SAKR-36, containing 72 and 98 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, respectively.[11]

Heliopolis Company for Chemical Industries has produced 122mm and 130mm artillery projectiles, which contain 18 and 28 DPICM submunitions, respectively.[12]

Evidence indicates that Egypt exported or otherwise transferred cluster munitions to Syria in the past, most likely before the current conflict.[13] Human Rights Watch and others documented Syrian government use of 122mm cluster munition rockets bearing the markings of the SAKR Factory for Developed Industries.[14]

The state-owned company issued a statement in September 2013 denying that it provided SAKR rockets to the Syrian government of President Assad.[15] The government has not commented on the use of Egyptian-made cluster munition rockets in Syria.[16]

Egypt has imported a significant number of cluster munitions, primarily from the United States (US), which provided at least 760 CBU-87 cluster bombs (each containing 202 BLU-97 submunitions) as part of a foreign military sales program in the early 1990s.[17] Lockheed Martin Corporation was awarded a US$36 million contract to produce 485 M26A1 Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets for Egypt in November 1991.[18] Between 1970 and 1995, the US also supplied Egypt with 1,300 Rockeye cluster bombs.[19]

Additionally, Jane’s Information Group notes that KMG-U dispensers of Soviet-origin are also in service for Egypt’s aircraft.[20]