Why Egypt wants nuclear energy

In a speech before the annual meeting of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stated last week that his country would start building several nuclear power plants in the coming years.

To assure critics, Mubarak said that the aim of the programme was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. He also pledged that his country would work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and would not seek nuclear weapons.

Mubarak's announcement is meant to serve different purposes. Domestically, it was considered as a father's response to his son's call to restart Egypt's nuclear programme. Speaking at the NDP's annual conference on September 19, 2006, Jamal Mubarak said that he thought the time had come for Egypt to harness nuclear energy.

"The whole world - I don't want to say all, but many developing countries," he said, "have proposed and started to execute the issue of alternative energy. It is time for Egypt to put forth, and the party will put forth, this proposal for discussion about its future energy policies, the issue of alternative energy, including nuclear energy, as one of the alternatives".

In recent years Jamal has become a key policymaker in Egypt. He currently heads the NDP's powerful policies secretariat. At the time, his call for reviving his country's nuclear programme was meant to play music to the ears of the domestic public opinion.

He was chosen to make it in order to rally support around him as a possible successor to his father by touching on an issue that is considered by most Egyptians as a matter of national pride.

The elder Mubarak's recent pledge about resuming Egypt's nuclear programme is widely associated with his attempt to hand over the country's top job to his son.

Amidst speculation that the 78-year-old Mubarak might not serve his full six-year mandate - started in 2005 - questions are raised about the timing of his emphasis on possessing nuclear energy.

In regional context, Mubarak's announcement came amidst rising tension over Iran's nuclear programme, which is believed to have been designed to produce nuclear weapons.

Reviving Egypt's nuclear programme, notwithstanding its peaceful nature, is meant to suggest that the Arab world would not stand idle watching Iran and Israel possessing nuclear power. In his speech Mubarak made clear that there were strategic reasons for the programme, considering it as ''an integral part of Egypt's national security interest''.

Regional influence

In fact, Iran's programme has prompted a slew of Middle East countries to announce plans of their own - in part simply to counteract Tehran's rising regional influence.

Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf Arab states have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programmes. Last September, Yemen signed a deal with a US company to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years.

Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the US on civil nuclear energy last June, and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there. These countries' quest for nuclear energy has put pressure on Egypt to seek it own, being the largest and the strongest Arab country.

Israel remains, of course, the only nuclear power in the Middle East and by far the largest threat to the region's security with more than 200 nuclear war heads.

Following a policy it calls "nuclear ambiguity'', Israel has never confirmed nor denied having a nuclear weapons programme itself.

Yet, Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at an Israeli nuclear plant, spent 18 years in prison after giving details of the country's atomic programme to a British newspaper in 1986. His information confirmed fears that Israel has the world's sixth-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Egypt has repeatedly complained about Israel's refusal to join the International Atomic Energy Agency's Non-Proliferation Treaty. Because of its ambiguity, Israel's nuclear installations are not subject to international inspection; a situation Egypt believes could lead to an arms race that would jeopardise security and stability of the region.

For all these reasons Egypt seeks to restart its nuclear programme that was publicly shelved in the aftermath of the 1986 accident at the Soviet nuclear plant in Chernobyl.

Dr Marwan Al Kabalan is a lecturer in media and international relations, Faculty of Political Science and Media, Damascus University, Syria.