Egypt, Saudi Arabia ‘interested’ in purchasing Mistral warships
August 7, 2015
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are interested in buying two French Mistral warships, said AFP on Friday. The warships had been sold to Russia before the French authorities scrapped the deal. Egypt and Saudi Arabia “are desperate to buy two Mistrals,” an unnamed official French source told France’s leading daily, Le Monde. “King Salman of Saudi Arabia wants to build a fleet in Egypt which could project regional power in the Red Sea and Mediterranean,” according to the source. The reports came a day after President Francois Hollande attended a ceremony marking the inauguration of a major Suez Canal extension in the Egyptian port city of Ismailia.