Outside the Beltway

Wikileaks on Suleiman

Dave Schuler · Tuesday, February 8, 2011 · No comments

Omar Suleiman, formerly the head of Egypt’s Intelligence Services, recently appointed as Mubarak’s Vice President, and touted by some as a worthy head of a transition government in Egypt, has apparently been looked on favorably as a replacement for Mubarak both by the United States and Israel for some time according to secret U. S. diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks:

JERUSALEM, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Israel has long regarded Omar Suleiman, just appointed Egypt’s vice president, as its preferred successor to President Hosni Mubarak, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.

“We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman,” said the cable written by the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv in 2008, using its own spelling for his name.

That cable was dated August 29, 2008. Another interesting Wikileaks revelation is that there’s been a hotline between Suleiman’s office and the Israeli Ministry of Defence for some time and it’s in daily use.