Minister of State for Military Production dies
Reda Hafez, minister of state for military production, has died at the age of 61, the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported Tuesday. The cause of death was an unnamed illness.
Hafez served as minister of military production in former Prime Minister Hesham Qandeel's government, appointed by then-President Mohamed Morsi, who had sent him into retirement from the military in August 2012, but later appointed him to the ministry. Hafez continued to hold the position after the ouster of Morsi and his government by the military last July.
Previously, Hafez became the Air Force's chief commander in 2008 and was a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Hafez had recently pledged to expand local arms production to reduce Egypt's reliance on the importation of military hardware. In a recent interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, he said that a tank now manufactured in Egypt is a joint Egyptian-American production. He also said that no country can prevent Egypt from importing anything it needs and that even if another country opposes the sale of certain arms to Egypt, there are other alternatives.
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